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Full-Text Articles in Philosophy

Beyond Permissibility : Traversing The Many Moral Pitfalls Of Abortion (A Virtue Ethics Approach), John Westley Mcmichael Jan 2015

Beyond Permissibility : Traversing The Many Moral Pitfalls Of Abortion (A Virtue Ethics Approach), John Westley Mcmichael

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Ethical discussions about abortion, typically, focus on whether or not it is morally permissible to destroy a fetus. If it is morally impermissible to do so, that seems to answer the question of abortion outright: all things being equal, it is wrong. If it is permissible to kill a fetus, however, it doesn't follow that one cannot err morally by doing so. Using virtue ethics as my guiding normative theory, I argue that there are many potential moral errors one can make in having an abortion (or, in other cases, by not having an abortion) that do not hang on …


Proactive Procreation : Ethical Implications Of New Genetic Technologies For Parental Obligations To Future Offspring, L Syd M. Johnson Jan 2009

Proactive Procreation : Ethical Implications Of New Genetic Technologies For Parental Obligations To Future Offspring, L Syd M. Johnson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the ethical implications of recent genetic innovations, particularly preimplantation genetic diagnosis, for the obligations and duties of parents to future children. I critique common but uncompelling objections to the use of genetic information, diagnosis, and technology to influence the characteristics of future offspring, and conclude that genetic selection and enhancement are not different in kind or degree from other means of selection, direction, and enhancement that parents engage in to shape the lives of their children. Procreation is morally risky -- it risks imposing substantial burdens on persons who would not otherwise have to bear those burdens, …