Arguments about Abortion: Personhood, Morality, and Law

by Kate Greasley

Overview

Does the morality of abortion depend on the moral status of the human fetus? Must the law of abortion presume an answer to the question of when personhood begins? Can a law which permits late abortion but not infanticide be morally justified? These are just some of the questions this book sets out to address. With an extended analysis of the moral and legal status of abortion, Kate Greasley offers an alternative account to the reputable arguments of Ronald Dworkin and Judith Jarvis Thomson and instead brings the philosophical notion of 'personhood' to the foreground of this debate. Structured in three parts, the book will (I) consider the relevance of prenatal personhood for the moral and legal evaluation of abortion; (II) trace the key features of the conventional debate about when personhood begins and explore the most prominent issues in abortion ethics literature: the human equality problem and the difference between abortion and infanticide; and (III) examine abortion law and regulation as well as the differing attitudes to selective abortion. The book concludes with a snapshot into the current controversy surrounding the scope of the right to conscientiously object to participation in abortion provision.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191079405
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	02/10/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	534 KB

About the Author

Kate Greasley is a Lecturer in Law at University College London. After completing her doctorate in law at New College, Oxford, she was appointed to a Junior Research Fellowship in Law at University College, Oxford, from 2013 to 2016. Her research and teaching covers medical law and ethics, criminal law, and legal theory. She has written extensively to date about issues in abortion law and ethics, as well as other topics in bioethics, including assisted dying, property rights in human body parts, and the commercialization of human organs.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One: Ordering the Argument
1. What Should Abortion Argument be About?
2. Gestation as Good Samaritanism
3. Abortion as Justified Homicide
4. Analogical Arguments and Sex Equality
Part Two: The Threshold of Personhood
5. Vagueness, Arbitrariness, and 'Punctualism'
6. Dualism, Substantial Identity, and the Precautionary Principle
7. Gradualism and Human Embodiment
8. Human Equality and the Significance of Birth
Part Three: Principle and Pragmatism
9. Regulating Abortion
10. Selective Abortion: Sex and Disability
11. Matters of Conscience

Editorial Reviews

"Above all the book is engaging, thoughtful and thought provoking, readable, comprehensive and a must read for anyone considering the abortion debate." — Bob Lane, Metapsychology Online Reviews

"This book is required reading for those interested in the ethics of abortion. It is a clear, novel and intellectually honest exploration of a wide range of pertinent ethical and legal issues." — Calum Miller, The New Bioethics

"This book represents an important contribution to discussions of abortion ethics. Greasley's account of what makes someone a person has significant advantages, not least that it is built on careful consideration of the biological circumstances of abortion, pregnancy, and birth." — Amy Berg, Ethics

"In this rigorous, elegant and ambitious book, Kate Greasley does not attempt to sidestep anything. Greasley tackles the moral status of the fetus head-on, and while it would be impossible for one book to resolve, conclusively and to everyone's satisfaction, the question of fetal personhood, her important new monograph must now be required reading for anyone who wishes to claim in the future that the fetus either is, or is not, a person." — Emily Jackson, Modern Law Review

From the Publisher