| Reading:
Title: The Morality of Abortion and the Deprivation of
Futures
Author: Mark T. Brown
Publication Information: Journal of Medical Ethics 26, no.
2 (April
2000), pp. 103-105
Summary:
Mark Brown strongly disagrees with Donald Marquis’s
argument that
abortion is as wrong as killing an adult is wrong. Marquis in
his
article “Why Abortion is Immoral” argues that in both cases,
we are
depriving the “person” of a “future of value”. Marquis
supports his
argument with a concept of “future like ours (FLO)” that
suggests that a
“standard fetus” in its future can have similar “experiences,
projects,
and activities” of an adult or a young child. Brown on the
other hand
questions the ambiguity in Marquis’s definition of “future of
value”
itself. He suggests that it can lead us to two potential
interpretations
– “potential future of value” or “self-represented future of
value”, and
argues that both interpretations, however, contribute to
rejection of
FLO.
Brown makes a parallel comparison between depriving
someone of
“potential future of value” with denying someone access to
something
that he or she needs to live. According to Marquis’s
definition, both of
such scenarios are homicides. If it were true, Brown argues
that it
would also be a homicide when a homeless man dies due to
exposure, when
an elderly woman suffers from fatal pneumonia due to unheated
apartment,
and when an injured child dies since he could not receive
right blood
transfusion on time. These tragic incidents in reality do not
qualify as
a homicide or violation of anyone’s right. Brown further
clarifies that
we receive medical services because we are part of a health
insurance
program or there is a universal health care system in place.
We do not
receive these services as our “welfare right” or just because
we would
have a better future. Similarly, someone needs a kidney
transplant to
survive and preserve one’s “potential future value” but it is
not a
homicide if that patient dies due to lack of a donor or a
perfect organ
match. In such scenarios, our life depends upon external
circumstances
that we do not have ownership or control over. With the same
token Brown
argues that survival of a fetus and its “potential future
value”
entirely depend upon reproduction system of a woman. An
abortion would
be wrong only if woman had no “presumptive right to control
access to
their [own] reproductive systems”.
Brown then takes on the “self-represented future of value”
interpretation of Marquis’s definition of “future value”. A
“self-represented future of value” is a self-realized
phenomenon for a
person. It comes from within a person’s complex mental life
without any
external dependencies. A person can think of many possible
futures for
oneself from one’s present perspective and past memories or
experiences.
Everyone cares about one’s self-represented futures because
it defines
who they are and “confers meaning and significance upon what
they think
and do”. The past and future that people base their value
upon are
something that they have created themselves and they
rightfully own
them. Brown writes that depriving someone of their past and
future by
killing them is ethically wrong and is a homicide. Brown then
argues
that a fetus, however, does not have the same capability to
construct
mental representation of its future. Quoting medical
journals, Brown
argues that since a fetus does not develop
“self-consciousness” until
well after its birth, it does not have a “self-represented
future of
value” that gets lost due to abortion.
With the analysis above, Brown categorically rejects the
possible two
interpretations of Marquis’s concept of FLO. Consequently, he
disapproves Marquis’s claim that abortion is same like a
homicide.
Hita Gurung (QCC,2003)
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