However, when comparing a fetus to an animal, for example, the mistreatment of an animal can result to harsh punishment. Because animals don't have the same rights as people do, that doesn't suggest we tolerate the abuse.
When is a fetus actually considered a person? Mary Anne Warner says in order to be labeled a "person" he/she should have the capacities for reasoning, self-awareness, and complex communication skills. Baruch Brody argues brain waves, Paul Ramsey claims a certain gene structure, and Michael Tooley suggests having the concept-of-self distinguishes a fetus from a person. Biological, psychological, rationality, social, and legal factors are also considered to make a distinction between a fetus and a person.
When does a fetus go from a non-person to a person? A fetus" similarities to a newborn is quite significant during the ending weeks of pregnancy, thus any careless treatment would be immoral. In the early weeks of pregnancy, right after conception, a fetus does not resemble a person enough for abortion to be considered infanticide or immoral. .
In conclusion, English says "whether a fetus is a person or not, abortion is justifiable early in pregnancy to avoid modest harms and seldom justifiable late in pregnancy except to avoid significant injury or death" (449 C/D).
Upon reading this article, I was never completely certain about how I felt about abortion. After analyzing English's views, alongside Thompson, Warner, Brody, Tooley, and Ramsey, I was easily able to come to my own conclusion. .
Because I never knew the facts and technicalities of abortion, I was always hesitant to have a distinctive "yes" or "no" answer to whether abortion is immoral. In addition, I was lazy enough to ignore that this was ever even an issue. But somehow I hastily just "decided" that abortion was wrong. Before I read English's article I read the following statistics that further implemented my decision that abortion is, indeed, immoral: .
