Table of Contents
Introduction
Pro-Life Reasoning
- Introduction
- Premise 1: Personhood Question is Key
- Premise 1: Emotional Appeals
- Premise 1: The Parasite Objection
- Premise 1: Summary
- Premise 2
- Premise 2b: A Human Being is a Human Organism
- Premise 2b: What Is an Organism?
- Premise 2b: A Human Embryo Is an Individual Organism
- Premise 2a: Defining Person
- Premise 2a: Defending Our Definition
- Premise 2a: Necessary Ingredients of Personhood
- Premise 2a: Continuous Properties
- Premise 2a: Binary Properties
- Premise 2a: Autonomous Breathing
- Premise 2a: Viability
- Premise 2a: Having Desires
- Premise 2a: Detectable Brainwaves
- Premise 2a: Binary Properties Summary
- Summary
Discussion Tactics
- Introduction
- Earn Respect
- Interpersonal Tips
- Reasoning Tips
- Discussion Framework
- Task 1
- Task 2
- Defending Premise 2b
- Defending Premise 2a
- State Your Position
- Summary
Sample Q&A
- Introduction
- List of Questions
- What about rape (incest, etc.)?
- What about when it’s required to save the mother’s life?
- What about when the woman’s health is at stake?
- What about a deformed fetus?
- What about when the fetus has a medical condition that will cause him to die at birth?
- Wouldn’t population explode?
- Won’t vulnerable women die in droves in back-alley abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned?
- If the law recognizes fetuses as persons, then women who have abortions will be charged with murder and might face the death penalty. Doesn’t that compound the injustice of the desperate situation they are already facing?
- Who are you to make a woman’s lifestyle decisions for her?
- The Violinist Argument
- The Kidney Donation Argument
- It’s fine for you to believe that, but how can you impose your belief upon me?
- But the right to abortion is constitutionally protected!
- It’s just a blob of tissue!
- I think personhood depends on sentience (consciousness, etc.).
- Fertilization is a gradual process, so how can it be the “line” marking the beginning of personhood?
- If a human being is produced via cloning, no fertilization event ever happened, so fertilization cannot be the beginning of personhood.
- In the case of monozygotic twins, two persons result from a single fertilization event, so fertilization cannot mark personhood.
- The lack of distress that society feels at the reality of miscarriage seems inconsistent with the pro-life position that tremendous loss of human life is involved.
- Why aren’t you doing anything to amend the social situations that make abortion needed?
- I have no respect for pro-lifers because they’re not anti-war (anti-death-penalty, etc.).
- You’re a man; what business do you have getting involved in this issue?
- Why are pro-lifers opposed to contraception?
- I’ve had an abortion; are you calling me a murderer? Then what are you calling me?