Does the morality of abortion depend on the moral
status of the human fetus? Must the law of abortion presume an answer to the
question of when personhood begins? Can a law which permits late abortion but
not infanticide be morally justified? These are just some of the questions this
book sets out to address.
With an extended analysis of the moral and legal
status of abortion, Kate Greasley offers an alternative account to the
reputable arguments of Ronald Dworkin and Judith Jarvis Thomson and instead
brings the philosophical notion of 'personhood' to the foreground of this
debate.
Structured in three parts, the book will (I) consider
the relevance of prenatal personhood for the moral and legal evaluation of
abortion; (II) trace the key features of the conventional debate about when
personhood begins and explore the most prominent issues in abortion ethics
literature: the human equality problem and the difference between abortion and
infanticide; and (III) examine abortion law and regulation as well as the
differing attitudes to selective abortion. The book concludes with a snapshot
into the current controversy surrounding the scope of the right to
conscientiously object to participation in abortion provision.
