Don Marquis Analysis

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Don Marquis has a strict view on why abortion is seriously immoral. He begins by asking the question, “What makes killing a normal adult human being morally wrong?”. It is not because killing brutalizes the one who kills because it is still wrong to the person who gets killed. It is not because it is harmful to the family and friend of the person killed because it is still just wrong to kill someone. It is not because of the pain it subjects someone to because it is still wrong to kill someone painlessly (pg 468-469). Marquis’ answers this question by stating that it is simply wrong to kill a person because it takes away their future. A deprivation of a future of value, a course of experiences, activities, projects, and learning various mental…show more content…
How can he decide that the mother has a better chance at a future than the fetus she is carrying? He cannot decide that so in my opinion, I would have to say the only exception is when a woman has been raped. In this case the woman did not want the baby and did not actively take part in the actions of conceiving one. Therefore, she should be able to abort the fetus. Then, I feel Marquis would have an objection to that and it would be that abortion is wrong even in the case of rape. It is immoral to kill a fetus with a future of value no matter how that fetus came about. Even though a woman was raped it does not give her the right to deprive a fetus of a perfectly valued…show more content…
He believe that contraception is not a form of depriving someone a future of value. He discusses four categories that are subject to harm by contraception (pg 471). The first category is some sperm or other, second is some ovum or other, third is a sperm and an ovum separately, and fourth is a sperm and an ovum together. If something loses a future of value then it has to be one of those four things. The way Marquis sees it, is that none of those four things holds a future of value. If none of those things loses a future of value then contraception overall does not deprive someone of a future of value. He finds it completely arbitrary to say that it was one or the other when it comes to a sperm or an ovum. You can’t say that a sperm loses a future of value whereas the ovum does not. You cannot pick one of the two. It cannot be both the sperm and the ovum separately because in this category too many futures are lost. If we say that the sperm and the ovum have lost futures of value then something has gone completely wrong because we have then lost two futures of value instead of just one. The only remaining category is a sperm and an ovum together. There is no actual combination of sperm and ovum because there are millions of sperms which are released and there are merely many possible combinations so there is no actual thing that is deprived of a future of
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    Don Marquis pointed out that abortion is serious wrong morally.His’ article,”Why Abortion Is Immoral?”,has been highly anthologized at April 1989. Marquis criticizes the argument between anti-abortion and pro-choice always uses the same point to attack each other.It is the result of stand-off results and forming a vicious cycle. Marquis explains why abortion is immoral without assuming the personhood of the fetus.It skips the argument of Judith Thomson, which is the right of the mother to choose

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