Word: fetus
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Applying these considerations to the abortion debate, first let us ask whether we think that the fetus first has the rational capacities necessary to ground the full-blown rights of persons. Plainly it does not. Does the fetus have the capacity to suffer? It may have these capacities, and if it does then it has rights that derive from them. Obviously, the recognition of the possibility of suffering does not give the fetus as many rights as some opponents of abortion, and as our perhaps intuitive distaste for abortions of convenience seem to require. It may be that fetuses, after...
...reasons that may be developed, I have never been impressed by the arguments that the fetus has a potential for human capacities, for rationality and that its rights are therefore grounded on that potential. I think that arguments based on potential cannot convincingly be made to prove only what is plausible, that they inevitably prove too much, vesting rights in say, unfertilized ova. And it is striking that where the capacity for rationality is definitely lost, as in the hopelessly brain-damaged individual there are very few who would assert the full range of human rights. An interesting case...
...real problem is the chance for error that is inherent in amniocentesis. There is not only the chance that a normal fetus could possibly be incorrectly identified as being deformed, there is also a chance that doctors' and professionals' misconceptions about Mongolism may cause them to advise parents, wrongly, to destroy "the vegetable...
Amniocentesis is a process that now enables doctors to detect a certain limited number of genetic defects before birth. With the development and perfection of the technique, amniocentesis could be made widely available to determine any number of things about the fetus, including genetic defects, Rh incompatability between the fetus and the mother, and even the sex, eye color, and future height of the unborn child...
...EXAMPLE, it is well known now that female cells have two X chromosomes on the last pair. Male cells have one X and one Y. Given this information, the pregnant mother of four female children could have amniocentesis performed to determine the fetus's sex. Knowing the sex of the child in advance, the parents could decide whether or not to abort. In this way, families could maintain a balanced--or an unbalanced--male-female ratio...