Abortion: the moral status of the embryo and foetus (personhood and viability), the rights of the foetus against those of the woman, and religious, sanctity-of-life and quality-of-life arguments.

What this key area is asking

Abortion is the first medical issue, and it shows clearly how the moral status of a being drives an ethical conclusion. You must understand the debate over the status of the embryo and foetus (personhood, potentiality, viability), the conflict between the rights of the foetus and the rights of the woman, and the religious, sanctity-of-life and quality-of-life arguments, then evaluate how far the question of status settles the issue.

The moral status of the embryo and foetus

Status matters because it sets the weight of the foetus's claims. The more status the foetus has, the stronger the case against abortion; the later personhood is located, the more room there is for the woman's rights to prevail. Because there is no agreed criterion of personhood, this is where much of the disagreement lives.

Rights of the foetus and rights of the woman

The competing-rights framing is important because it shows that status alone may not settle the issue: one can grant the foetus considerable status and still argue that the woman's rights can outweigh or limit its claims. A strong evaluation weighs whether rights can be ranked, and whether Thomson's analogy fits ordinary pregnancy.

Religious and sanctity-of-life arguments

Religious positions are not uniform, however: traditions differ on ensoulment, on permissible exceptions, and on how to weigh the mother's life, so an answer should avoid treating "the religious view" as single. The marks reward representing the range fairly and evaluating it.

Quality-of-life and consequentialist arguments

On the other side, quality-of-life and utilitarian arguments weigh the wellbeing of the woman, the family and the potential child (for example in cases of serious foetal abnormality, rape, or risk to the mother's health), and judge abortion by its consequences rather than by an absolute rule. Autonomy supports the woman's right to decide. These arguments tend to permit abortion in a range of cases, and clash directly with the sanctity-of-life view, which is why the sanctity versus quality of life contrast is the underlying fault line.

Worked example

Try this

Q1. Why is the moral status of the foetus so central to the abortion debate? [2 marks]

• Cue. Because the foetus's status sets the weight of its right to life: full status from conception makes abortion the killing of an innocent, while later personhood weakens its claims relative to the woman's rights.

Q2. What does Thomson's violinist argument aim to show? [2 marks]

• Cue. That even if the foetus has a right to life, that does not entail a right to use the woman's body, so abortion can be permissible even granting foetal status.