The Ethics of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice [Paperback]

Kaczor's work is thoughtful and thought-provoking, and is the antithesis of catch-phrase and bumper-sticker arguments that are all-too-representative of much of the public discourse on any number of topics, including abortion. He manages also to stay clear of the tedious language and tangled progressions that are the hallmark of the work of philosophers meant for philosophers. This work is meant to be accessible to the entire populace, regardless of background or training. All that one requires for this work to be fulfilling is interest in the topic and interest in rational thought, as opposed to emotional reactivity.

This book helped me to better understand the philosophical issues involved in the ethics of abortion. It included every pro-choice argument I've heard as well as some pro-life arguments I hadn't heard before. It's the most thorough set of arguments from both sides I've ever read.

Kaczor defends the pro-life position from all angles in this thorough and well-written work. This book rival's Frank Beckwith's 2007 book "A Defense of Life" in the sense that it addresses all the most sophisticated pro-choice arguments to date, and does so in an extremely convincing manner. Kaczor interacts with all the top pro-choicers, including Mary Anne Warren, Michael Tooley, Peter Singer, Judith Jarvis Thompson, and David Boonin (who apparently gave great suggestions and feedback concerning early manuscripts to Kaczor). The layout of the book is fairly standard. Kaczor shows that the unborn is a human being, argues against all of the common "personhood" objections including sentience, viability, desires, consciousness, etc., shows the unborn is a person, devotes a chapter to the "bodily rights" arguments, and has a chapter devoted to "hard cases" on both sides. However, the substance of the arguments is anything but standard. Kaczor has some very interesting illustrations. For example, when arguing against the "personhood from desires" argument, Kaczor notes that in Buddhism, the entire purpose of life is it have no more desires and ultimately, end up in a state of desierlessness (not a word). On the persnhood from desires theory, a Buddhist who has achieved his ultimate ends would no longer be considered a person. There are many other illustrations and thought experiments that I had never seen before.

I also enjoyed the chapter refuting bodily rights. This is always a difficult analogy for pro-lifers who aren't familiar with the argument, and even if one is familiar, it can be difficult to find a convincing argument against it. Kaczor gives several reasons why arguments from bodily rights fails. One argument that was interesting (in the context of JJT's violinist analogy) was an argument which said that if you have a right to unhook yourself from the violinist, the violinist has the right to unhook himself from you as well. Kaczor also reiterates some points made by Patrick Lee in his book "Abortion and Unborn Human Life." I had just read this book, and it was good to read Lee's arguments again. On that note, I do think Lee has the best and most pithy argument against abortion based on bodily rights. This argument does not fall into the trap of basing the right to life of the unborn on the fact that the sexual relations that brought about teh child was consensual. So often that is teh argument against teh bodily rights argument, and it leaves the baby who is a result of rape open to be killed.

Kaczor's final chapter looks at the question of artificial wombs. Specifically, he asks us to suppose for the sake of argument that artificial wombs have been perfected and that we can safely (as safe as standard surgery, say) transfer the unborn at any stage of development from the mother into an artificial womb. Would such a technology be morally permissible to utilize and would it end the abortion debate? Kaczor's answer to these questions in general is "yes" though it should be noted that he doesn't argue that any and all pregnancies should be transferred haphazardly to an artificial womb. He is also careful to note that it would end the INTELLECTUAL abortion debate, not the emotional or practical abortion debate. In other words, appealing to the writings of the best pro-choicers, he sees no reason why they would disprove of such a technology and argue that a woman still may abort the child. Kaczor looks at many pro-life objections to using artificial wombs. His replies seems convincing enough to me, though I would like to read/hear an ardent pro-lifer's arguments against artificial wombs for some balance. It was a very interesting read, and a concept that I hadn't given much thought to before.

I found this book very helpful in refreshing my pro-life arguments. It is very current, scholarly, and detailed. An excellent choice for those who have heard pro-choice arguments and are not sure how to address them.

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