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Do Pro-Lifers Really Believe that Embryos have the Same Moral Status as the Born? - David Hershenov. OPEN SEMINAR
Prof. David Hershenov
University at Buffalo
The aim is to rebut four charges that have been made that pro-lifers don't really believe that the unborn have the same moral as the born. One has to with pro-lifers not calling for a massive transfer of research funds from other diseases to fight the scourge of miscarriage since miscarriages end more lives than all the other fatal diseases combined. The second charge has to do with embryo rescue cases. Those are thought experiments in which there is a fire in the fertility clinic and you can save a number of frozen embryos or one child or adult passed out on the floor from smoke inhalation. Choosing to save the latter is supposed to show that embryos don't have the same moral status as the born. The third claim of pro-life (unwitting hypocrisy) is the unwillingness of pro-lifers to shoot or cause serious physical harm to abortion doctors when they would shoot or severely physically harm someone shooting up a maternity ward or elementary school classroom. If embryos were as valuable as the born, then if we shoot killers of the born but not killers of the unborn, it is alleged that is due to a difference in their moral status. The fourth charge is that the legal penalties for abortion have been much less than the penalties for murdering innocents already born which suggests that embryos have less value.
We invite you to participate in this year's edition of the Prof. Stanislaw Kaminski Memorial Lectures, organized by the Faculty of Philosophy at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. The course consists of lectures that will take place between 9 am and 12 pm on May 9-13, 2022, as well as an open seminar MAY 9, 2022 | 3:00 PM CET ROOM C220 (Collegium Collegium Joannis Pauli II) | also available online:
