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How to move beyond our endless disagreements over abortion policies - C C - Nov 16, 2023
A Kantian solution to what seems an insoluble moral conflict
https://publicseminar.org/2023/11/kantian-abortion-laws/
EXCERPTS: In Political Liberalism, the Kantian theorist John Rawls argues that countries with political systems based on principles of freedom, liberal democracies like the United States, can only sustain themselves if they decide constitutional matters without appeal to deeply personal beliefs. If decisions are grounded in deeply personal beliefs, the resulting laws will be inherently oppressive to others, and trespass on personal freedoms. It is thus important that we learn to discuss such issues as abortion as both private persons, going about our own personal lives, and as public persons, who must use reason to decide which laws should govern everyone.
Our public leaders, therefore, cannot legislate on behalf of all of us if they justify their arguments according to their own personal views. And yet Rawls’s argument cannot tell us exactly how to reason about abortion, specifically, nor can it help us decide whether and why there is a general difference between the legal permissibility of early versus late-term abortions.
Immanuel Kant’s own legal and political theory cannot only solve this problem but also give us better resources with which to think about abortion. Kant’s philosophy distinguishes a legal conception of personhood from a deeply personal (ethical, religious, metaphysical) conception of personhood.
He therefore provides a basis for separating the legalities of abortion from our deeply personal beliefs. This distinction directs us away from the intractable disagreement over the beginning of a human life and instead towards a legal discussion we can solve together. It enables us to direct our attention toward a cluster of fetal activities that suggest the legal beginning of life, which may or may not correspond with one’s personal beliefs.
[...] The point is that we can and should do this; we do not need to be stuck where we are on abortion. No amount of scientific knowledge about zygotes or fetal development or metaphysical investigations into the soul or personhood can settle objectively the question of when life begins.
Instead, switching the discussion to legal personhood in combination with a discussion of state-guaranteed provision of reproductive health services provides us with a useful starting point for public discussions on enforceable abortion rights. Kantian philosophy provides principled reasons, supported by long-standing historical and cultural practices, to actively, respectfully, and publicly debate what laws should be. Then we can entrust those who hold the relevant public offices to make this determination in a way that represents and can unify us despite our different deeply personal answers to the question of life’s beginning and in a way that is justifiable given the state’s ability to provide health care to pregnant persons... (MORE - missing details)
RE: How to move beyond our endless disagreements over abortion policies - Syne - Nov 16, 2023
(Nov 16, 2023 01:46 AM)C C Wrote: No amount of scientific knowledge about zygotes or fetal development or metaphysical investigations into the soul or personhood can settle objectively the question of when life begins.That's a lie. All the science already tells us when a human life, with it's own unique DNA begins.
Quote:Instead, switching the discussion to legal personhood ...This is already the leftist argument. So this whole article is just arguing for the right to completely capitulate.