Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30480820›Full record

ArticleBioethics2019

Even if the fetus is not a person, abortion is immoral: The impairment argument.

Perry Hendricks

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Bioethics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
3.6field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Impairment Arguments, Interests, and Circularity.The Journal of medicine and philosophy · 2024
    Article
  3. The SIA Can't Just Go with the FLO.HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues · 2024
    Article
  4. Impairing the impairment argument.Journal of medical ethics · 2024
    Article
  5. A reply to Gillham on the impairment principle.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2024
    Article
  6. Three Problems with the Impairment Argument.Asian bioethics review · 2023
    Article
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.

Perry HendricksPurdue University Department of Philosophy, West Lafayette, IN, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9753-6914
Purdue University West Lafayette · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Much of the debate about the ethics of abortion has centered on whether the fetus is a person. In an attempt to sidestep this complex issue, I argue that, even if the fetus is not a person, abortion is immoral. To arrive at this conclusion, I argue that giving a fetus fetal alcohol syndrome is immoral, and that if this is so, then killing the fetus is immoral. Roughly, this is because killing the fetus impairs it more than giving it fetal alcohol syndrome. Since abortion (in most cases) amounts to killing the fetus, this means that abortion (in most cases) is immoral. I defend the premises of this argument against a plethora of objections, concluding that they either do not work, or commit their proponent to a controversial position.

Indexed as

Dissent and DisputesEthical AnalysisFetusHuman RightsLifePersonhoodAbortion, InducedAbortion, LegalBeginning of Human LifeDeathFemaleFetal Alcohol Spectrum DisordersHomicideHumansPregnancyValue of Lifeabortionfetal alcohol syndromeimpairment argumentpersonhood

Identifiers

PMID30480820
OpenAlexW2902500030

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.