Abortion is unlawfully wrong. Although to many people it is an unpopular belief, and they do have good reasons for an abortion (which I will explain in my essay), to take away a life of a potentially great human being is committing murder. In this essay I will thoroughly review 2 arguments on abortion. The first article is “An almost absolute value in history” by John T. Noonan, Jr., and the second article is “Why abortion is immoral” by Don Marquis. John T. Noonan provides a more logical argument to abortion, whereas Don Marquis seems to be more emotional with his argument, including more value laden claims rather than factual claim. Therefore, Don Marquis provides a more successful argument on abortion, based on the fact that his argument has premises that he believes to be true, and his conclusion backs up his premises which must make his argument to be true. Marquis includes many factual claims, but also some value laden claims to explain why its significant to him. This essay will completely explain each argument by pointing out each premise along with its conclusion then compare both arguments in how they are similar and/or different. This essay will also thoroughly explain if either argument is inductive or deductive.
“An Almost absolute value in history” by John T. Noonan. Noonan’s argument is more so based on the concept on the difficulties of pregnancy and why some people might feel as if its liable to have abortion. His argument includes some factual claims that back up his argument along with some value laden claims that make this argument more personal to him. He starts his argument with his first difficulty “One is that the perfection of artificial incubation may make the foetus viable at any time.” With this premise, he discusses the problem with artificial incubation which is defined as “the maintenance of an artificial environment for an infant, especially a premature infant”. In this premise, Noonan states that artificial incubation is not 100% successful and that there are complications that can occur during pregnancy such as a preterm and post term baby, where they don’t come out at the expected time. Another premise that Noonan uses to back up his conclusion is that “A being who has had experience, has lived and suffered, who possesses memories, is more human than one who has not.” This relates to the idea that some people believe that foetuses aren’t “real” human beings because they haven’t experienced or possessed memories like we do, hence they believe that foetuses aren’t human beings and are not as important, which could cause someone to consider an abortion. The third premise that Noonan states is the “appeal to the sentiments of adults”. This premise is based more on emotional attachment to the foetus. He expresses an example that A person will grieve differently for a newborn child vs a child that has lived for a few years. What this premise says to me is that people believe that because the child hasn’t lived as long as, say, another child, then that newborn has little to no significance in comparison to the child who has lived longer. The problem with this premise is that you can’t measure someone’s grief for a person. There is no scale as to which you can determine how intense someone’s grief is whether it’s a newborn child or an older child. Who’s to say that the parent would grieve unequally for a certain child compared to another? A 4th distinction that Noonan provides is the “sensation by the parents”. What this premise explains is the physicality of a foetus. He explains that the foetus is only perceived as human once it has been expelled from the mother where he/she can be seen and felt physically; this means that if the parents can’t feel or see the embryo physically, it’s not perceived as human/significant to them. This premise also ties along with his second premise where in this premise he expresses the importance of physicality vs his second premise where he expresses the importance of experience to the real world. We can see that most of the problems with abortion has to do with the fact that people do not believe that foetuses are human beings but rather nonexistent until it becomes physical. The last distinction that Noonan provides is “social visibility”. What Noonan explains in this distinction is the communication of foetuses. He states that “It cannot communicate with others. Thus, both subjectively and objective, it is not a member of society.” The problem with this premise is that foetuses rather do communicate with the outside world. Later along the pregnancy, you see the visual appearance of a baby’s kick, which can provide some communication to the outside world. It can be physically felt by the mother, therefore I provide a rebuttal to this premise that foetuses can communicate with the outside world. Most of Noonan’s premises are based around the idea that most people believe that foetuses are not actual human beings, that they cannot be felt, communicated with, or seen physically. Most difficulties with abortion has to do with the physicality of the foetus. Noonan concludes that “If humanity depends on social recognition, individuals or whole groups may be dehumanized by being denied any status in their society.” What this conclusion expresses is the blindness of abortionists, and that they specifically only depend on social recognition which can be argued sufficiently. We can see that Noonan sides with anti-abortionists and that this argument was mainly to inform his audience on why people choose to have an abortion. Although he doesn’t give his own personal bias in his premises, he concludes with a strong personal value laden claim.
“Why abortion is Immoral” by Don Marquis. In this article, Marquis concludes with the statement that Abortion is immoral. Compared to Noonan’s argument, Marquis’s seems to have more emotional premises than logical ones. Marquis’s first premise to back up his conclusion is that “Life is present from the moment of conception or that foetuses look like babies or that foetuses possess a characteristic such as a genetic code.” So immediately, Marquis states that foetuses have life and therefore are human beings and significant. In the second premise, Marquis states that “It is wrong to kill “us””. What he is stating here is that a foetus is just like us, normal human beings, and since killing human beings would be murder, he relates that to killing foetuses. He states the importance of a foetus in the fact that they have the same liabilities that we have as well. He states that “what makes killing “us” wrong is that killing brutalizes the one who kills.” When Marquis uses the word brutalizes, he expresses how violent the act of abortion is, and how we deprive that foetus of a great life that we have. The third premise that Marquis states is “For a killing where the victim did have a valuable future like ours, having that future by itself is sufficient to create the strong presumption that the killing is seriously wrong.” In this premise, he understands that some humans are not financially stable to raise a child and provide that child with the life that it deserves, so he is giving a counter argument to his premise on which someone could possibly have an abortion due to the living standards of that parent. But then he immediately disregards that argument to people who can provide a good life for that child, in stating that if the parent can financially raise a kid, aborting it would deprive that child from living a normal lifestyle. Marquis’s 4th premise expresses a counterargument to the statement “Ones future being valuable is that one values it. Value implies a valuer.” Marquis first starts his premise with that counterargument but quickly disregards it and uses the example of suicide. He expresses that someone who thinks of suicide may feel as if they are of no value to this earth but someone who loves them would see them as valuable. He compared that example to that of a foetus since “a foetuses future can be valuable to it in the same way.”, since a foetus can’t acknowledge its own importance but it’s parent could deem it important, therefore countering the argument that foetuses have someone that values them in that same sense. The last premise that Marquis states is the fatality of contraception. He explains that contraception is due to the loss of many sperm cells that have the ability to reach into the egg creating a foetus. In the beginning of this premise, he states that people probably believe that contraception isn’t necessarily killing the foetus since it has never been developed. He also explains that “The ethics of killing in this essay would entail that contraception is wrong only if something were denied a human future of value by contraception.” Which is mainly why people use contraception; to prevent the reality of a baby. In this premise, Marquis believes that contraception is the cause of the fatality of many possible foetus cells from becoming. Considering all of these premises, Marquis concludes his argument that “Finally, this analysis can be viewed as resolving a standard problem-indeed, the standard problem-concerning the ethics of abortion. Clearly, it is wrong to kill adult human beings. Clearly is it not wrong to end the life of some arbitrarily chosen single human cell.” Marquis expresses in his conclusion that many people believe that since foetuses aren’t human beings, their liabilities are non existent.
Comparing both arguments, they both cover the topic of abortion and how people view it, where both arguments seem to be oppose abortion. In Noonan’s argument, he bases his premises and conclusion solely on the distinctions and difficulties and faults of anti-abortion within the population and what people often believe to be true. His conclusion states that if many people believe solely that foetuses don’t have have the same physical characteristics as humans do, then it could ruin the idea of humanity. Marquis on the other hand, has a more emotional standpoint where he expresses the faults and statements of people who believe that abortion is the answers in which he concludes directly that Abortion is wrong. So comparing these two arguments, we can clearly see that Noonan’s argument is solely based on the faults of anti-abortion and why people believe in it; whereas Marquis’s argument is solely based on the faults of abortion and why he believes in it. When it comes to inductive vs deductive arguments, Noonan’s argument is an inductive argument because his conclusion states that “If humanity depends on social recognition, individuals may be dehumanized.” Noonan’s conclusion is based on predicting the future. Since the future is not always evident, Noonan’s argument proves to be inductive since his conclusion is not completely true and can be proven false. Marquis’s argument on the other hand is a deductive argument. Why I believe this is because many of his premises are proven true, and his conclusion backs up his premises making his conclusion true. It is a direct statement that Marquis believes to be true, therefore making his argument a deductive one.
When it comes to which argument has the more successful argument, it would be Don Marquis because his argument showcases many relevant premises that back up his conclusion making his argument valid. In his argument he includes a variety of premises from factual claims, value laden claims, and even a rebuttal to one of his premises in which he comes up with a counter argument, expressing his claim to be true. One of his premises that proved to be valid, considering his conclusion was his second premise.. This premise proves to be factual because he does express that murder is wrong and that eliminating any living being is considered murder. His conclusion is strong based on the fact that many of his premises are strong and accurately entail to his argument. Compared to John T. Noonan’s argument, Some of Noonan’s premises were partially invalid due to the fact that some of his premises could not be proven to be true such as his 3rd premise where he states that the sentimental aspect of a foetus in that a parent will grieve harder for an older child vs. a newborn child. There is no scale as to which you can measure someone’s grief. We can also see that Don Marquis’s premises are mostly counter arguments to some of John Noonan’s premises. Some examples of these is Don marquis’s 1st premise “Life is present from the moment of conception or that foetuses look like babies or that foetuses possess a characteristic such as a genetic code.” Vs John Noonan’s 2nd premise “A being who has had experience, has lived and suffered, who possesses memories, is more human than one who has not.” Don Marquis seems to provide a counterargument to John Noonan’s premises on the distinction that some abortionists believe that if a being has experience and has suffered etc. then it is more human. Marquis states that Life is present from conception where Noonan’s premise states that its present from the moment it experiences things outside of the womb. Marquis again proves to be successful with this argument because it has been proven that as soon as conception happens, a foetus experiences many things. In the womb, the foetus can hear us, just as humans can hear sound. A foetus can also experience movement. Noonan’s premises again proves to be invalid due to the fact that as soon as conception happens, they experience life and as they come to be in the womb, they experience the same things as human can experience such as hearing and feeling.
Although Marquis does provide many valid and strong concepts, he also provides one concept that isn’t so valid and can have many rebuttals. Marquis’s last premise is based on contraception which expresses how it prevents the miracle of conception and that it is “wrong only if something were denied a human future of value by contraception.” The problem with this premise is the fact that he disregard the fact that many people use contraception because they are either not old enough, or financially stable to give life to a baby. Marquis doesn’t include the emotional or physical aspect that may have a role in using contraception. They want to enjoy the the physicality of making one, but many people just aren’t ready to have one. Using contraception doesn’t necessarily mean that they despise the fact of being impregnated, they just may not be ready at that time of being. Another reason why this premise is slightly invalid is because contraception isn’t just for birth control. Many people use contraception to regulate their menstrual cycle, it makes periods less painful, and it also reduces your risk of uterus cancer and ovarian cysts. Although Marquis only covers the fact that it may prevent the making of a baby, he disregards the fact that it is also used for other reasons that may benefit the woman taking it.
A rebuttal to the above counterargument is the fact that Marquis’s main argument is on abortion. He understands that contraception is used in other aspects but he’s mainly just covering the fact that it is wrong to reduce the chances of a potential living being, but also the fact that it does reduce your egg count and it kills the sperm cells.. His premise on contraception is proved to be factual since he does provide scientific reasoning in the fact that using contraception such as birth control can reduce the chances of someone being impregnated because it decreases your egg cell count.
In conclusion, both arguments explain the faults of abortion, where John T. Noonan’s argument is based solely on the distinctions and differences of anti-abortion, whereas Don Marquis focuses on the faults of abortionist ideas. Marquis proves to have the more successful argument in the fact that he provides many factual, value laden claims that make his premises strong, which then makes his conclusion strong making his argument deductive. His premises are so strong that when countered, it can still be proven valid. John Noonan’s argument is proven to be the weaker argument based on the fact that many of his premises can be countered with great reasoning, and the fact that many of Noonan’s premises were proven wrong and countered by Marquis’s premises, making Noonan’s argument weak and inductive.
Works Cited
Osborn, Corinne O’Keefe. “Benefits of Birth Control: 10 Advantages Beyond Preventing Pregnancy.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 26 July 2018, www.healthline.com/health/birth-control-benefits#regular-menstrual-cycles.
Noonan, Jr., John T. “An Almost Absolute Value in History .” 1985.
Marquis, Don. “Why Abortion Is Immortal.” 1989.
Vaughn, Lewis. Great Philosophical Arguments: an Introduction to Philosophy. Oxford University Press, 2012.