Some Ethical Ideas: Birth
Requirements:
1. Read the attached pages of the textbook in order to answer the 2 questions below
2. About half a page per answer.
3. Use your own words,no plagiarism!
Question 1: Rights vs Gradualism
Blackburn draws a distinction between what he calls “Gradualism” and more traditional ‘Rights’ based views of abortion. It’s important to keep in mind that typical pro-choice and pro-life views are BOTH ‘Rights’ based views (The Right to Life is emphasized in the Pro-Life perspective and the Right to Liberty and personal Freedom is emphasized in the Pro-Choice view). So, keeping this in mind, what distinction is Blackburn trying to draw between Rights based views and Gradualism? In answering, be sure to consider both what actions the different views might permit or oppose AND the reasoning by which these different theories would reach their conclusions (after all, they might sometimes reach the same conclusion but for substantively different reasons).
Question 2: Amartya Sen
Blackburn presents Sen’s data on “Missing Women,” but what exactly does she mean? The context of most of this section is actually abortion, but is Sen claiming that there have been that many abortions in the world motivated by decisions about the fetus’ gender? Or does the issue of the “Missing Women” extend beyond abortion? If the latter, what other factors do you think are reflected in Sen’s findings? Also note, more recent research has demonstrated that to some extent Sen’s numbers are flawed: for example, in China the “One Child” policy actually lead to the birth of many women who legally don’t exist, but who do in fact exist. Given that, should we adjust our conclusions regarding Sen’s research? And if so, how?
