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Impairing the impairment argument.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Change log

Authors

van Oosterum, Kyle 

Abstract

Blackshaw and Hendricks have recently developed and defended the impairment argument against abortion, arguing that the immorality of giving a child fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) provides us with reason to believe that abortion is immoral. In this paper, we forward two criticisms of the impairment argument. First, we highlight that, as it currently stands, the argument is very weak and accomplishes very little. Second, we argue that Blackshaw and Hendricks are fundamentally mistaken about what makes giving a child FAS immoral. Once we acknowledge this, it is clear that our intuitions about giving a child FAS provide no support for the supposed immorality of abortion.

Description

Peer reviewed: True

Keywords

abortion - induced

Journal Title

J Med Ethics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0306-6800
1473-4257

Volume Title

Publisher

BMJ
Sponsorship
Arts and Humanities Research Council (NA)
Institute for Ethics in AI (NA)