John T Noonan believes that the viability of a fetus confers humanity on it. True or False?

Question

John T Noonan believes that the viability of a fetus confers humanity on it. True or False?

Answer 1

It is true that Noonan believes this.  Whether it is actually true in a larger sense depends on a number of other factors, not the least of which is determining the future with such accuracy.

Answer 2

Well, that seems pretty weird. For one thing, viability is largely dependent on the quality of the medical instiutitions. A fetus which is viable in New York in 2008 may likely not be viable in Ghana in 2008, or in New York in 1980. Does a fetus of a certain age in Ghana which is not viable have less "humanity" than if the mother lived in New York? It is, at best, very odd to think that humanity depends on where in the world a being is.  

Answer 3

Yes and No. A previous response said no in that human life may be more or less viable in different times and places, yet the life at stake is the same. The question is should it? A nonviable fetus maybe just as human as a viable one, but humanity is not conferred upon it by society at large by means of convenience. Humanity, whatever that is, happens to be conferred on viable fetuses by means of a reciprocity based emotional inference. Namely; what if I wasn't viable? Is this rationale valid... to me, yes, but only subjectively so. Objectively, what is humanity and who are we to regulate its conferrance?

Answer 4

Neither true nor false.  People have been disagreeing about this for a long time, they're still disagreeing about it, and they may be disagreeing about it for a long time to come.  Because there is no clear-cut answer.  Abortion is not a moral issue.

Where the morality comes in is in HOW a person lives the position that he takes.  You can be morally or immorally pro-choice.  You can be morally or immorally anti-choice.  There are lots of people who proclaim themselves to be "pro-life" who don't really care about the viability of fetuses, and lots of people who say they are "pro-choice" who don't really care about women's reproductive rights--what they really care about is taking sides on a political issue and being right.