Vaupel 1

Kevin Vaupel

Professor Name

Subject Name

02 December 2021

Should women have universal rights for abortion?

Element I: The topic of abortion has many different views when it comes to philosophy.

Many different philosophers have different views on if the killing of the fetus was moral or not.

One of those philosophers was named Don Marquis. Marquis's view on abortion is that any

killing is wrong because having an abortion is taken away that fetus's valuable future. However, I

strongly believe that it is the women's choice to have an abortion. I also believe that if the

women had the choice to have the abortion or not that they had a good reason for doing so.

Element II: Don Marquis's point is that any killing is wrong and that still goes for killing

a human fetus. Within an article written by Eric Reitan, he stated a quote the explains Don

Marquis’ very well, “ The category that is morally central to this analysis is the category of

having a valuable future like ours, not the category of personhood.’ He stresses that his argument

proceeds ‘independently of the notion of a person or potential person or any equivalent”(Reitan,

1). Don Marquis’s main argument when it comes to abortions is that you are taking a valuable

future from a fetus that can not defend itself. A fetus's valuable future could consist of different

experiences, goals, and different relationships. Don Marquis believes that even tho fetuses are

not humans yet that they still have the right to live. As stated in Eric Reitian’s article, “ the fetus

has the same right to life because killing an adult human being - namely depriving an organism

of a future like ours, one full of the kinds of valuable experiences, projects, activities, etc., that
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typical human futures have (Reitian, 2). Don Marquis's main point that he was trying to get

across is that any killing is bad and is not moral.

Element III: Many would argue against Don Marquis's point on abortion, due to the fact

that many believe women should have the right to make their own choices when it comes to their

own bodies. In an article written by Angela Knobel, she stated: “ is to concede that the violinist’s

case is indeed similar- irrelevant respects- to the case of pregnancy due to rape but to deny the

legitimacy of unplugging oneself from the violinist”(Knobel, 699). From this quote by Angela

Knobel, you can assume that she believes that Don Marquis's view that any killing is bad and not

moral in any situation is not true. Knobel is one of many people who believe that in certain

situations abortion is okay and one of those situations is if that woman was taken advantage of

by being raped or in another way.

Element IV: I believe that women have the right to make their own choices when it

comes to making decisions about their bodies. It is “their body” and with it being their own body

I believe they should make any type of decision even if it will hurt others. They need to look out

for their own health and their own well-being. When it comes to a woman making a decision

whether or not to have an abortion I believe it comes down to a couple of situations. For the first

situation, I completely understand if that woman was raped or taken advantage of. Another

reason would be if that woman has severe health problems.

When it comes to having an abortion if that woman was raped or taken advantage of I

believe that it is completly reasonable. In any situation, with a woman being raped or taken

advantage of they have a past and a horrible memory that they may not want to relive, and

perhaps because of that situation they became pregnant. Having that fetus within you is a

memory of that horrible time. Sometimes that woman going through that type of situation may
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not be able to handle it which would lead to the decision for them to have an abortion. One of the

main reasons they may not be able to go through with the pregnancy is that it would be a lifetime

burden of a horrible memory.

Another reason why women may choose not to continue with pregnancy may be because

of medical reasons. In many situations, a woman may not be able to complete her pregnancy

because it may put her own life at risk. Sometimes this medical condition may be having with the

woman or possibly with the child. In many cases, a fetus may not be healthy enough that if the

woman would have the baby it would put her life at risk.

Element V: In conclusion, I believe that when it comes to abortions the woman should

have the right to make any choice because it is her body. But, many people have different

thoughts when it comes to abortion. For example, philosopher Don Marquis's view was that any

killing of a living thing is bad and not moral and within an article written by Reitan, that was

quoted earlier, Marquis’s main point was that the fetus has a valuable future and that you should

not take the valuable opportunity away from that fetus. Even though many people have the same

view that Don Marquis has, many people have different beliefs that are similar to my own. In

another article that was stated early written by Anglea Knobel, she had explained that abortion is

understandable if women had been raped or had non-consensual sex. With that being said I

strongly believe that the woman should have the right to have an abortion or not due to the fact

that it is her own body and may have a reasonable explanation for that action.

Works Cited

Knobel, Angela. “Rethinking Unplugging.” Journal of Medicine & Philosophy, vol. 44, no. 6, Dec. 2019, pp.

698–711. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/jmp/jhz026.

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Reitan, Eric. “Avoiding the Personhood Issue: Abortion, Identity, and Marquis’s ‘Future-Like-Ours’

Argument.” Bioethics, vol. 30, no. 4, May 2016, pp. 272–

281.EBSCOhost,doi:10.1111/bioe.12211.