Abortion is morally permissible

Why Killing a Human Fetus is not Wrong

When you kill a fetus, you are not taking away a life that it values. A fetus is not aware of itself and has no desires or interest. It’s impossible to believe that harming a being with no interest could be morally wrong. If we actually believed that harming a being with no interest is wrong, then killing plants and bacteria would also be morally wrong. But of course nobody thinks killing those things is wrong, so why would it be any different for the fetus? What makes killing wrong? Why do we normally think that it’s one of the worse things a person can do? In my view, what makes killing wrong is that it frustrates the desires and plans a being has for the future. Since a fetus cannot have a desire or an interest in continuing to live its life, it can’t be harmed by having its life ended. This is why killing a fetus is not a moral wrong. Now I will run threw some possible objections to this desire view on the wrongness of killing.

1. “Suppose there is a suicidal person who takes no interest in his or her future, would it be wrong to kill them?”

It depends on the situation. If it’s a person with severe depression who has been to therapy, counseling, and has gone through a variety of things to help combat this illness but nevertheless still feels terrible and wishes to die, then yes, it would be morally permissible to kill them. However, this person must be an adult who consents to a lethal injection administered by a physician. Let’s take another scenario. Suppose we have a depressed person who hasn’t gone through any treatment to combat his illness but has a very pessimistic view that he won’t get better. Is it permissible to kill him? No, it’s not. The reason for that is because this person is not able to think rationally due to his depression, and so cannot make a meaningful choice concerning his death. Only when he is well informed about certain treatments and counseling can he be allowed to choose euthanasia.

2. “A person who is asleep does not have a desire to continue living, so under your view it would not be wrong to kill them in their sleep."

This is false. A person who is asleep does have a desire to continue living. When someone is asleep, they still have their same mental states, beliefs, desires, and interest in continued existence retained in their brain. This is also true in times when people are temporally unconscious.

3. “Under this view, infanticide would be morally permissible. Because infants don’t have a desire for continued existence.”

Infanticide would not be morally permissible under this view. This is because once a child is born it no longer threatens the well-being and autonomy of the mother. After birth, the child can be taken away and placed up adoption if the mother doesn’t want it. Killing the infant would be wrong because it would go against the desires of the people willing to take care of it.

Conclusion

In this paper I have argued why killing a human fetus is not morally wrong, and that the interest and desires of the mother to have an abortion should not be ignored so the fetus can use her body to live.