viability
The question of whether or not abortion is morally permissible is a complex and difficult one to answer, evoking much emotion on both sides of the debate. Many factors must be taken into consideration when rendering a verdict in a discussion on abortion. For instance, whose right to life is more prevalent a mothers, or the unborn child's'? Another such factor is the viability criterion, used to determine the personhood of the fetus. It is this factor that is the topic of Alan Zaitchik's essay entitled, Viability and the Morality of Abortion. In the essay, Zaitchik examines and rejects a particular reason that the viability criterion is often dismissed as morally arbitrary or a problem-ridden criterion for fetal personhood, namely that in the future medicine might be able to enable a zygote at the time of conception to be viable. He writes, "It is common for fetal "viability" to be dismissed out of hand as a morally arbitrary or problem-ridden criterion for fetal personhood. I want to examine and reject one particular reason often advanced in support of this claim, namely that future medical-technological progress is almost certain to someday render a fetus viable at the earliest stage of pregnancy, perhaps even at conce
By stating the definition in this manner, it is explicitly stated that not every fetus will be able to receive the medical technology available to it, either for economic or geographic reasons. If the technology s so expensive that only a small percentage of the extremely wealthy may have access to it, that shouldn't, and by this definition doesn't, make a fetus who is excluded from the technology any less viable that from one who is privileged enough to have access to it. Similarly, if the technology is available in a place very distant from a particular fetus, so that fetus doesn't have access to it, then that fetus isn't any less viable that a fetus who does have access to it. As in the example provided by Zaitchik of "a women flying from Cambridge to Calcutta, and receiving the right to destroy a formerly viable fetus." Obviously, the distance traveled, or the poverty lived in, doesn't preclude a fetus from being viable at a certain point. The working definition prov! 2. No obvious problems, or perhaps no problems whatsoever follow from the mere fact that someday even a fertilized ovum may be viable 3. Viability should not exist as a criterion for abortion. He also provides another reason that he only uses the liberal point of view, namely that nothing in the overall objection of problems occurring from the fact that someday medicine may render a zygote viable depends on whether a liberal or conservative use of the term viability is being made. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "When a fetus has reached the stage of viability, even though it is in fact still inside and part of a woman's body, and even though it is in fact many miles and dollars removed from the nearest incubator-that is although it would in all likelihood not enjoy the benefits of current medical technology even if it were prematurely born-nonetheless we can easily imagine it already outside the mothers body doing well in an artificial incubator. It is due to this particular fetus's bad luck that it is still trapped inside the body of a woman who wants it destroyed. So, it is natural to view the viable fetus as something more than a mere part of its mothers body; it is natural to view it as a person. For it is only due to this fetus's bad luck that it is not already a person."
Some common words found in the essay are:
Cambridge Calcutta, Brooklyn Bridge, Morality Abortion, , viability criterion, medical technology, pre-viable fetus, bad luck, viable fetus, current medical technology, fertilized ovum, current medical, future medical, fetus viable, criterion personhood, future medical technology, whatsoever follow mere, possibilities imaginable affairs, fetus's bad luck, Alan Zaitchik's,
Approximate Word count = 3799
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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