Volume 101, Issue 2 p. 186-202
Original Article

What Must Pro-Lifers Believe About the Moral Status of Embryos?

David B. Hershenov

David B. Hershenov

Philosophy Department, Romanell Center for Clinical Ethics and the Philosophy of Medicine, University at Buffalo

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First published: 12 March 2020
Citations: 5

Abstract

Embryo rescue cases and minimal miscarriage prevention research have been interpreted as showing that even pro-lifers are not really committed to the unborn having the same moral status as the born. I will suggest instead that judgments about embryo rescues are often distorted by triage considerations that reveal nothing about differences in moral status between those saved and those not. I will present metaphysical and ethical considerations – none assuming a difference in moral status – why preventing millions of miscarriages does not warrant the massive redistribution of research funds that would occur to prevent the deaths of equal numbers of humans already born.

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