Don Marquis and Michael Tooley

Don Marquis (left) and Michael Tooley (right) on abortion and personhood.

According to Tooley, abortion is morally permissible: a fetus is not a person, so it cannot have a right to continued existence. To support his view, he defends a neo-Lockean account of personhood grounded in psychological continuity. Against Tooley, Marquis defends an animalistic view of personhood, and argues that most instances of abortion are wrong for the same reason that killing you or me would be wrong: an abortion deprives a fetus of a future of value.

Related works

by Marquis:

“Abortion and the Beginning and End of Human Life” (2006)

“A Defense of the Potential Future of Value Theory” (2002)

“Why Abortion is Immoral” (1989)

by Tooley:

Abortion: Three Perspectives (2009)

“Abortion and Infanticide” (1972)

See also:

Christopher Kaczor, The Ethics of Abortion (2010)

David Boonin, A Defense of Abortion (2002)

Baird and Rosenbaum (eds.), The Ethics of Abortion (2001)

Frances Kamm, Creation and Abortion (1992)

Alastair Norcross, “Killing, Abortion, and Contraception: A Reply to Marquis” (1990)

Judith Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion” (1971)