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Elma Trujillo
Professor Szetela
English 1010-30
20 November 2012
Is abortion morally wrong and should it be legal?
Annotated Bibliography
Beckwith, Francis J. Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice. Cambridge
University Press, 2008. Print.
Francis J. Beckwith defends his pro-life position morally, legally and politically. By
defending human life and stating that a life begins at time of conception he confronts the
arguments made by pro- abortion supporters. The author also defends his view that the unborn is
the subject of moral rights from conception.
This book is useful on defending the right of life; it provides good arguments when
defending the moral status of the fetus. It also provides great statements when claiming that the
fetus has the right to live.
Cannon, Leslie. “Understanding and Responding to Anti-Choice Women-Centre Strategies.”
Reproductive Health Matters Vol. 10, No. 19, May 2002; 171-179. JSTOR. Print. 29 Oct 2012.
Leslie Cannon discusses the rise use of a woman-centred anti-choice or prolife strategy to
oppose abortion in Australia and USA. The strategy argues that women do not really choose
abortion but are pressured into it by others and then experiencing the consequences afterwards,
including an increased risk of breast cancer, infertility and post abortion grief. But beside the
effect that abortion might bring to the mother. Cannon explains that to this anti-abortion
movement abortion represents the murdering of an innocent, and they believe that everyone has
the right to life and no one has the right to take it away.
This article is useful because it provides information about the anti-abortion strategies
currently being used to oppose abortion. Also explains how they are being used against abortion
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and it explains why the strategies are important to decrease abortion support. It also emphasizes
the damages women are doing to themselves after undergoing an abortion. But besides the
damages they suffer after abortion, the article also discusses how anti-abortion movement sees
abortion.
Cohen, Susan A. "Facts and Consequences: Legality, Incidence and Safety of Abortion..." Guttmacher
Policy Review Vol. 12, No. 4. Fall 2009: 2-6. SIRS Issues Researcher. Print. 23 Oct 2012.
Susan Cohen explains in this article that there are many unqualified and unskilled
providers who do not have the minimum medical standard performing this illegal procedure
putting the women at a higher risk of losing their own life.
This article is helpful because it helps understand that besides seeing abortion as a
horrible thing there are many risks that many women undergo when seeking unskilled providers
to perform this illegal procedure. Also emphasizes that we should be conscious of the problems
that laws against abortion brings to society.
Eligon, John; and Michael Schwirtz. “Senate Candidate Provokes Ire With ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comment.”
The New York Times. 20 Aug 2012. Web. 16 Nov 2012.
Senate Candidate Todd Akin states during an interview on a St. Louis television station
that he opposes abortion no matter if the woman was pregnant, according to him the women has
way to shut her reproductive system down. He restates that abortion and particularly in the case
of rape is very emotionally but he deeply believes in the protection of all life, and also believes
that harming another innocent victim is not the right course of action.
This article is helpful because it provides an interview with a senate candidate and
emphasizes how other people rather than regular people feel about abortion in the case of rape.
The senate candidate gives reasons why abortion is still wrong even if rape was the cause of
pregnancy. The senator lays out that the unborn child is as innocent as the woman therefore
abortion is not the right way of action.
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Giubilini, Alberto. “Abortion and the Argument from Potential: What We Owe to the Ones Who Might
Exist.” Journal of Medicine & Philosophy. Vol. 37 No. 1, Jan 2012: 49-59. Academic Search
Premier. Print 16 Nov 2012.
The author responds to an anti-abortion argument that was defended by Hare, the
argument relates that abortion is against the interests of the potential person who is prevented
from existing. The author argues that in order for AFP statement to be true, it would have to have
certainty.
It is a good article because the author presents a counter argument against the pro-life
AFP facts supporting life, by claiming that their arguments are not valid in the struggle of
opposing abortion.
Himma, K.E. “A Dualist Analysis of Abortion: Personhood and the Concept of Self Qua Experiential
Subject.” Journal of Medical Ethics. Vol. 31 No. 1, Jan 2005: 48-55. JSTOR. Print. 25 Oct 2012.
The author argues the fetus is not a person until brain activity has begun. She considers in
order for someone to be consider a moral person has to have a self. Second she argues that
because a fetus does not have some electrical activity in the brain it has no self and therefore
abortion should be legal until at least the fetus has developed brain activity.
The article provides a pro-choice arguments about why abortion should be legal and why
is not wrong. It states that abortion is not murdering because the fetus is not consider a person yet,
as it lacks the necessary brain activity to have a self.
Jost, Kenneth. "Abortion debates." CQ Researcher 10 Sept. 2010: 725-48. Print. 23 Oct 2012.
This article states whether the state of Nebraska should keep abortion legal. Some of the
prochoice supporters allege that a fetus does not feel pain because their frontal cortex is not well
developed to feel pain or any type of emotion.
This articles points out good statements on why women should make their own decisions
concerning their own life. It also restates that abortion right supporters allege that the government
should not have the right to control what happens in their body.
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Manninen, Bertha Alvarez. “Rethinking Roe v. Wade: Defending the Abortion Right in the Face of
Contemporary Opposition.” American Journal of Bioethics. Vol. 10 No. 12, Dec 2010: 33-46.
Academic Search Premier. Print. 16 Nov 2012.
The author presents the abortion debate background and tries to explain why the decision
on Roe v. Wade was a bad decision for the prochoice movement. She explains why it was a bad
decision based that it only provided the right not to procreate but left out when life begins,
because the justices felt it was irrelevant to the case. According to her, this is something that
needs to be address in a new revised decision to help end the abortion debate. The author also
provides views as to why denying someone the right to abortion would be the same as forcing
them to carry an undesired pregnancy.
This article helps because it explains why the abortion debate has been going on, and
provides vital background on how the Roe v Wade decision was made. Also it points out why
women should not have their right violated by forcing them to have an unwanted child.
Stephens, Moira. “Religious perspectives on Abortion and a Secular Response.” Journal of Religion and
Health. Vol. 49 No. 4, Dec 2010: 513-535. Academic Search Premier. Print. 16 Nov 2012.
This article focuses on the religious aspects ant point of views on abortion. It discusses
different views from different religious groups like Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, Islamic,
Buddhist, Confucian and Hindu. The author claims that the main reason for this article is to find
out how these seven of the world’s major religion addresses abortion.
The article is useful because it provides different views from different religious groups,
and as we know religion is the main argument brought up when coming when opposing abortion
claiming that abortion is wrong under god’s eye because it interrupts a life. It is important to see
if their ideas may be similar or if they differ from each other.
Tupa, Anton. “Killing, Letting Die, and the Morality of Abortion.” Journal of Applied Philosophy. Vol.
26 No. 1, Feb 2009: 1-26. Academic Search Premier. Print. 16 Nov 2012.
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Anton Tupa criticizes David Boonin’s article “A defense of Abortion” Anton points out
that unwanted pregnancies do not succeed in justifying killing of the unborn. He also emphasizes
that is commonly the difference between killing and letting die since they are several different
methods of abortion that involved killing the fetus. It also presents the arguments that the
prochoice movement has and questions whether or not those arguments can hold to be true or not.
The article explains different methods of abortion which supports the pro-life statement
that abortion includes killing a child. It also questions the views of the prochoice movement; for
example prochoice supporters say killing is worse than letting die, but they make an exception
and say is permissible of killing a begin with a right to life when it comes to pregnancy because
of “special facts.”