Persons, Moral Worth, and Embryos

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Introduction: What Are Persons? What Is Valuable?

   • Stephen Napier

   Pages 1-16

3. Philosophical Considerations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. I Was Once a Fetus: That Is Why Abortion Is Wrong

      • Alexander R. Pruss

      Pages 19-42

   3. Brain Life and the Argument from Potential: Affirming the Ontological Status of Human Embryos and Fetuses

      • Jason T. Eberl, Brandon P. Brown

      Pages 43-65

   4. The Human Being, a Person of Substance: A Response to Dean Stretton

      • Francis J. Beckwith

      Pages 67-83

   5. The Concept of Person in Bioethics

      • Anselm Winfried Müller

      Pages 85-100

   6. Abortion and Virtue Ethics

      • Mathew Lu

      Pages 101-123

   7. Embryos, Four-Dimensionalism, and Moral Status

      • David B. Hershenov

      Pages 125-144

   8. The Christian Hypothesis

      • David W. Fagerberg

      Pages 145-161

   9. Fetal Interests, Fetal Persons, and Human Goods

      • Christopher Tollefsen

      Pages 163-184

4. Scientific Considerations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 185-185

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   2. Fetal Pains and Fetal Brains

      • A.A. Howsepian

      Pages 187-210

   3. A Biological Definition of the Human Embryo

      • Maureen L. Condic

      Pages 211-235

5. Perspectives from Law and Political Philosophy

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 237-237

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   2. Public Reason and Abortion Revisited

      • David Thunder

      Pages 239-253

   3. Abortion, Sexual Markets and the Law

      • Helen M. Alvaré

      Pages 255-279

6. Back Matter

   Pages 281-283

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“Bioethicists have achieved consensus on two ideas pertaining to beginning of life issues: (1) persons are those beings capable of higher-order cognition, or self-consciousness, and (2) it is impermissible to kill only persons. As a consequence, a consensus is reached regarding the permissibility of both destroying human embryos for research purposes and abortion. The present collection aims to interact critically with this consensus. Authors address various aspects of this ‘orthodoxy’. Issues discussed include: theories of personhood and in particular the role of thought experiments used in support of such theories; the notion of an intrinsic potential and the moral relevance of having one; new formulations of the virtue argument against abortion rights; four-dimensionalism and abortion; the notion of moral status and who (or what) has it; scientific accounts of what a human being is, as well as addressing empirical evidence of fetal consciousness; and analysis of the public policy implications given the epistemic status of pro-choice arguments. Given the issues discussed and that the arguments in critical focus are fairly new, the collection provides a novel, comprehensive, and rigorous analysis of contemporary pro-choice arguments.”

• Abortion
• Abortion rights
• Abortion – ethical aspects
• Embryonic stem-cell research – ethical aspects
• Metaphysics
• Moral Epistemology
• Ontology
• Pro -choice
• Pro-life

• National Catholic Bioethics Center, Philadelphia, USA

  Stephen Napier

Policies and ethics