Deprivation Argument

AN ARGUMENT AGAINST ABORTION

P1. Abortion deprives a fetus of a “future like ours”

P2. Except in unusual circumstances, depriving a fetus of a “future like ours” is wrong

C. Therefore, except in unusual circumstances, abortion is wrong


CONSERVATIVE COMMENTARY

See the argument as per Don Marquis which concludes:

This essay contains an argument for the view that, except in unusual circumstances, abortion is seriously wrong.  Deprivation of an FLO explains why killing adults and children is wrong.  Abortion deprives fetuses of FLOs.  Therefore, abortion is wrong.  This argument is based on an account of the wrongness of killing that is a result of our considered judgment of the nature of the misfortune of premature death.  It accounts for why we regard killing as one of the worst of crimes.  It is superior to alternative accounts of the wrongness of killing that are intended to provide insight into the ethics of abortion.  This account of the wrongness of killing is supported by the way it handles cases in which our moral judgments are settled.  This account has an analogue in the most plausible account of the wrongness of causing animals to suffer.  This account makes no appeal to religion. Therefore, the FLO account shows that abortion, except in rare instances, is seriously wrong.

https://web.csulb.edu/~cwallis/382/readings/160/marquis.html