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Understanding the Abortion Debate with Francis Beckwith

February 13th, 2011 by Madeleine

Those who have been following Matt’s series Abortion and the Morality of Feticide might enjoy this video featuring Francis Beckwith of Baylor University’s Philosophy faculty speaking to the Summit Ministries Interns on the topic “Understanding the Abortion Debate“. Beckwith is arguably one of best contemporary philosophers writing from the pro-life position. He is a clear and entertaining speaker who can break his work down into a form that anyone can follow.

In this talk Beckwith poses the question, who and what are we? He goes on to discuss current bio-ethical issues such as cloning and stem cell research as well as the nature of the fetus. He also critiques common arguments for abortion.

Click to View "Understanding the Abortion Debate"

 

Tags:   · · · 6 Comments

6 responses so far ↓

  • I could sit for an hour watching this but, wanting to cut to the chase, I went to his website and read his essays instead.

    “The pro-life position is subject to somewhat varying formulations. The most widely accepted and representative of these can be defined in the following way: The unborn entity is fully human from the moment of conception. Abortion (narrowly defined) results in the intentional death of the unborn entity. Therefore, abortion entails the intentional killing of a human being. This killing is in most cases unjustified, since the unborn human being has a full right to life. If, however, there is a high probability that a woman’s pregnancy will result in her death (as in the case of a tubal pregnancy, for example), then abortion is justified. For it is a greater good that one human should live (the mother) rather than two die (the mother and her child). Or, to put it another way, in such cases the intent is not to kill the unborn (though that is an unfortunate effect) but to save the life of the mother. With the exception of such cases, abortion is an act in which an innocent human being is intentionally killed; therefore, abortion should be made illegal, as are all other such acts of killing. This is the pro-life position I will be defending in this series. ”

    This, is the whole area that Matt and I were discussing.

    Whether or not, outside of that area of exception a termination is morally justifiable.

    I’ve not been convinced by the arguments put forward that prior to 18 weeks that it is not, and for the reasons I’ve given.

    I think that the pro-life movement particularly in the USA will continue to seek to restrict the technical availablility of a termination, but all that that will do is to displace the termination elsewhere as currently happens with Irish women coming to England.

    Trying, instead, to reduce the time limit down from 24 weeks, would in my opinion, be a much better strategy.

    The case that a fetus from inception should have the same human rights as a fetus at 25 weeks has not been accepted.

  • Can you add Kook to your list of tags on this post, please.

  • I think that the pro-life movement particularly in the USA will continue to seek to restrict the technical availablility of a termination, but all that that will do is to displace the termination elsewhere as currently happens with Irish women coming to England.

    Sounds like you would have benefited from watching the video, as this sort of “well, it’s going to happen anyway, we should make it safe” argument is exactly what he covers.

  • Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (02/11 – 02/18)…

    Here are this week’s recommended apologetics links. Enjoy….

  • does this fail for anyone else every time at 15:29?