1. On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
11FE031 KASUMI ODASHIMA

2. Mary Anne Warren
Associate professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University
American writer
her writings on the issue of abortion

3. Argument
Because women are persons and fetus are not, women’s rights override whatever right to life a fetus may possess.
Override・・・to be regarded as more important than something else
Right to life・・・生存権

4. On the definition of “Human”
(1) it is wrong to kill innocent human beings
→ “human being has the moral sense”
(2) fetuses are innocent human beings
→”human being has the genetic sense”
it is wrong to kill fetuses
Genetic sense

5. On the definition of “Human”
primary criteria of personhood
Sentience (感覚性)
Emotionality(情動性)
Reason (理性)
The capacity to communicate
Self-awareness (自己認識)
Moral agency (道徳的行為者性)　
→a fetus is a human being which is not yet a person,
　and which therefore cannot have full moral rights
Personhood 個性、人間性
感覚性・・・Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think ("reason") from the ability to feel ("sentience").
Moral agency is a person‘s ability to make moral judgments based on general notion of right and wrong and to be resposibile for these actions

6. Fetal Development and the Right to life
(1) How a human being need to be before it begins to have a right to life?
(2)Does the fact that a fetus has the potential for becoming a person endow it with the same right?

7. (1) How a human being need to be before it begins to have a right to life?
7 month fetus → have a form of consciousness
Respond to stimuli (light, sound)
But, not as conscious, or as capable of emotion as a very young infant is
little or no capacity for reason, intentional communication, or self awarenesses
fetus is not have a right to life

8. No, a fetus doesn’t have the same right.
(2)Does the fact that a fetus has the potential for becoming a person endow it with the same right?
No, a fetus doesn’t have the same right.

9. Conclusion
Women are persons, and fetuses are not
Women’s rights to life liberty, and physical integrity override whatever right to life
Laws that deny women’ the right to obtain abortions are unjustified violation!
Integrity・・・the quality of being honest and strong about what you believe to be right