Paradoxes of abortion and prenatal injury

Abstract

This work examines various arguments surrounding common assumptions held regarding fetuses’ interests, rights, and the permissibility of abortion and prenatal injury. It argues that, given these assumptions, injuring a fetus is a grave offense, while abortion typically is not, although abortion should not be used as a remedy for prenatal injury. It also presents a number of paradoxes in this context, such as cases in which the order in which certain actions are taken affects their permissibility. Finally, it observes that legislation on prenatal injury is impeded by society’s general indifference to fetal death, and faces further complications from the potential confusion between lethal and nonlethal prenatal injury. – AI-generated abstract.