A paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics, entitled "After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?", argues that killing a newborn baby should be "permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled". (Hat-tip: Catholic Herald.)
The authors of this paper, Alberto Giubilini of the University of Milan and Francesca Minerva of Oxford University, argue that "both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons". Secondly, they say that "the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant". Thirdly, they write that "adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people". ...
But what interests me is how this paper might lead to support for the pro-life movement. As Matthew Archbold points out on the National Catholic Register, the ethicists' arguments are actually sound: if we accept their ideas on personhood, there is no ethical reason to stop carrying out abortions at the arbitrary point of birth.
Which is why abortion was always only a beginning.
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