Introduction
Good day to all of you guys, today, I am going to present my argument about abortion and why I, together with most of the people in this planet, consider it as an immoral act. Please take note that my book report is all about Don Marquis’ argument and the book about Moral Life. I will relate as much details about abortion as I can to enlighten you guys here about the said topic, so let us get going.
Let me start by reporting to you what abortion is. Of course, it would be so unfair for those who believe that abortion is not immoral (or not so immoral) if there would be people who stand on their ground that abortion is indeed an immoral act if we do not know the topic. It would be most fair if we could know as much as we can about the topic first and then after that, react.
That way, we would have enough and reasonable grounds to believe what we want to believe in; that abortion is an immoral deed and I will take advantage of this chance to explain to you why, based on Marquis’ arguments. Not all of you may agree to me about this but please relate to what I am going to say.
Plot Summary
The book’s theme as well as Marquis’ argument revolves around abortion. Abortion is technically killing. The fetus, who is actually inside the womb of his or her mother, is already a complete human being by the time he reaches three to four months. If the baby is aborted by his parents before delivery, the baby will die and no one could change the fact that that baby’s parents killed him. Additionally, know that there are actually a lot of issues about this argument alone.
There are people who believe that fetuses are already living beings and killing them would be nothing different when compared with the act of killing an adult person. The book basically contains different arguments about abortion. The arguments present were actually non-religious. Different analogies were used. One good thing about the book is that it gathered different perspectives from different authors and not only from Don Marquis.
In a research conducted by Mary Anne Warren (n.d.) for example, she actually tried to investigate whether killing fetuses would be morally wrong or not, using the issue that I just talked about as the basis. However, the problem in her study is that he immediately came up with a conclusion even if there are some biases in her research. She defends that abortion is a morally sound deed and that there really is nothing wrong about it.
So, as a quick overview of abortion, it is simply the process of terminating an ongoing pregnancy that is usually motivated by personal reasons. The fetus is expelled from the uterus before he can even breathe the first air into his lungs. Some abortion processes, especially the ones that take place when the baby is old and big for it to naturally be expelled from the uterus already, are actually violent because it is a prerequisite that the fetus be killed first so that it could smoothly go out of the woman’s body. That in itself is inhuman. Imagine killing a fetus. They are just little angels who do not even know what’s going on or what’s going to happen to them. The next thing they know, they are already dead and that is seriously immoral not only for Marquis but also for me.
Analysis and Evaluation
I am not yet a philosopher so I will not try to use the analogy that Marquis and other philosophers used to get a better understanding about our current topic because it will really complicate the situation. For others, they even consider the formed analogies about abortion as completely unhelpful whether you are a proponent or are against the fact that abortion is equivalent to immorality.
Marquis, in his argument, talks about FLO (stands for future like ours). He explained that abortion deprives the fetuses the future that could have been the same with our experiences today. Stealing somebody else’s future could actually be considered the worst crime one could even commit.
If one is to kill an adult, it would be a very disgracing thing to do because the killer just stole the future of the person he killed. The same principle could actually be applied to our fellow fetuses that died without even having the chance to experience the pleasures of this world that God has provided for “all” (emphasize) of us. This is actually the part that totally convinced me to believe that Abortion is indeed a seriously thing to do.
Marquis’ argument is not only effective but also powerful because it was able to set a standard about the possible perception of people about abortion. Of course, just like any other argument and book, there would be imperative to think that there will be strengths and weaknesses.
Let me go first with the strengths of the book as well as Marquis’ argument about abortion. First, he was able to identify the main source of the confusion whether abortion is really an immoral act or not. He tried to relate it with the term FOL which I just mentioned a while ago. In terms of Marquis’ Qualification in writing his argument, I could say that he is a fine and a reputable man in the field of Philosophy. He is not only a philosopher, he also acts as a novelist, a newspaper columnist, a poet, so we could assume that he knows a lot about the current sociological and societal issues present in today’s generation.
Let us now proceed with the weaknesses of his arguments as well as the book’s arguments about abortion. In the book, examples of other people’s objections about Marquis’ view on abortion were given. The First objection simply talks about how fetuses could care less about their future. Those who oppose Marquis’ view believe that if the fetuses’ future is invaluable to them, then it would also be invaluable for other people, thus making abortion a not so immoral thing to do.
Another objection states that fetuses do not even have the right to live because they were not able to express their desires for their own existence in the first place. One argument on the other hand talked about how the use of contraceptive methods could be an also immoral thing as well, because it would also lead to the separation of the would-be fetus and his future.
Conclusion
After reading Marquis’ argument about morals, one could easily understand how things should really go in the fairest way possible. This could serve as an indicator whether the book has been effective in serving its purpose or not. Overall, I find the book enjoying and stimulating to read because it actually makes you think about the point and sense of the author about the topic. I would certainly recommend reading this book to my friends and to all of you so that we could all be enlightened about the immorality in abortion.
References
Warren, Mary Anne. The Argument of Abortion. Research Papers. December 2011.
Pojman, L. The Moral Life. USA: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.
