The Philosophy Discussion Forum

Morally, you are correct. There is a huge difference. The legal analysis, however, is the same.

I don't see how the hypocratic oath, made in ceremonial fashion, as a legal requirement before being allowed to practice medicine, could be translated to a responsibility a Doctor has towards the foetus. The appropriate analogy is between that Doctor, and a police officer asked to evict a squatter. ...

Gustaf,
I would add that there is a huge moral difference between accidental and purposeful killings.

Would you say that condemning a murderer is hypocritical because of the thousands of people who die in car accidents every year?

Caring for your children (as well as your parents and possibly more remote relatives) is clearly a moral obligation. I don't think it should be a legal one. Can we assume that you would accept that whilst a child is in the direct care of a parent or guardian (i.e. living with them) that said parent...

Say person A has a rare blood disease that can only be cured by running a 9 month round-the-clock infusion from person B. Would we be allowed to hold person B against his will and force him to support person A? This really depends on whether or not B has willfully taken action that, as any reasonab...

I may have a moral obligation to sustain another person's life, but absent a prior commitment, I cannot morally be forced to do so. Sorry but you can. The law can make that happen. The law says that if you have a person inside you then killing it is murder. The law has determined when it is and whe...

I may have a moral obligation to sustain another person's life, but absent a prior commitment, I cannot morally be forced to do so. Many people would consider the mother to have a moral obligation to carry the pregnancy to term. I am not expressing a view one way or the other (I guess if pressed I w...

The important point is that if we accept that no being, even full humans, has a right to live parasitically off another, the question of when personhood emerges becomes irrelevant. All that is relevant is the scientifically-decidable question of whether the being can live independently, or with the ...

I think there is a different way of looking at the issue, a way which doesn't require us to distinguish between a born baby and a foetus. Say person A has a rare blood disease that can only be cured by running a 9 month round-the-clock infusion from person B. Would we be allowed to hold person B aga...