Deck 9: Abortion

Question 1

To claim that before Roe v. Wade there were thousands of women dying as a result of illegal abortions is making an argument based on

A) Utilitarianism
B) Virtue ethics
C) Categorical Imperative
D) Relativism

Answer 1

A

Question 2

All arguments regarding abortion depend on decisions regarding the moral status of the fetus.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

MacKinnon listed all the following as stages of fetal development except

A) Fertilization
B) Viability
C) Sensory awareness
D) Quickening

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to the Species Criterion, in order to have full moral value and a right to life an individual must have certain person-making characteristics, such as the ability to reason.

Question 5

According to this decision, this right is absolute.

Question 6

Compared with 1990, the number of abortions in the US in 2003 was about

A) The same
B) 10% lower
C) 15% higher
D) 25% lower

Question 7

According to Thomson, if one has a right to life one has a right to whatever is necessary to sustain that life.

Question 8

If some action is immoral, then it follows from this alone that it ought also to be illegal.

Question 9

According to this decision, there is a fundamental right to privacy.

Question 10

According to this decision, abortion is not permissible beyond the 12th week of fetal development.

Question 11

Planned Parenthood suggested the information given out at the Pregnancy Support Center was

A) Accurate
B) Helpful
C) Misleading
D) Designed to help women make informed decisions

Question 12

The women least likely to have abortions are

A) Black
B) Hispanic
C) White
D) Poor

Question 13

According to utilitarian reasoning, abortion is morally unjustified if it will lead to more unhappiness than happiness.

Question 14

People who argue that abortions lead to a lack of adoptable babies are basing their argument on

A) Utilitarianism
B) Natural law
C) Categorical Imperative
D) Egoism

Question 15

The Roe v. Wade 1971 Supreme Court ruling on abortion asserts that a woman should always have a right to abortion if she so chooses.

Question 16

If a woman says she has a right to her body, she is basing her argument on

A) Egoism
B) Natural law
C) Categorical Imperative
D) Virtue ethics

Question 17

A blastocyst is a

A) Ball of cells
B) Type of abortion procedure
C) Concept the pro-life camp uses to scare women
D) Ovum

Question 18

The ratio of boys to girls in China is

A) 96:100
B) 115:100
C) 124:100
D) 144:100

Question 19

According to Thomson and her violinist analogy based argument, if the fetus is thought to be a human being then abortion is not morally permissible.

Question 20

In using "Method I" to determine the morality of abortion we need to pick a point in fetal development and then tell what is present and why this is significant.

Question 21

To suggest that abortion may be less immoral in Kenya than in Germany is based on

A) Utilitarianism
B) Natural law
C) The Categorical imperative
D) Relativism

Question 22

Label the following examples of Method II arguments (regarding abortion) as examples of what kind of life has moral worth: Species Criterion (S), Modified Species Criterion (MS), Strict Potentiality Criterion (SP), Modified Potentiality Criterion (MP), or Actual Possession Criterion (A). It is an advance morally that we have come to realize that all human beings have equal and full moral worth no matter what their age, capacity, race, or sex.

Question 23

Label the following examples of Method II arguments (regarding abortion) as examples of what kind of life has moral worth: Species Criterion (S), Modified Species Criterion (MS), Strict Potentiality Criterion (SP), Modified Potentiality Criterion (MP), or Actual Possession Criterion (A). Because dolphin species can think and communicate they have the same full moral status as members of the human species.

Question 24

Label the following examples of Method II arguments (regarding abortion) as examples of what kind of life has moral worth: Species Criterion (S), Modified Species Criterion (MS), Strict Potentiality Criterion (SP), Modified Potentiality Criterion (MP), or Actual Possession Criterion (A). Early-term fetuses do not have as much moral value as late- term fetuses.

Question 25

Judith Jarvis Thompson crates an analogy about

A) A child able to talk within the womb
B) A woman being denied a right to job
C) A woman awakes to find her body being used to give life support to a violinist
D) A man who is pregnant

Question 26

Label the following examples of Method II arguments (regarding abortion) as examples of what kind of life has moral worth: Species Criterion (S), Modified Species Criterion (MS), Strict Potentiality Criterion (SP), Modified Potentiality Criterion (MP), or Actual Possession Criterion (A). There are some human beings that do not have full moral status because they do not actually have the ability to think and communicate, for example, those in a persistent vegetative state.

Question 27

What is the difference between Method I and Method II.

Question 28

What relevance does the morality of abortion have to whether or not there should be laws regulating abortion?

Question 29

Label the following examples of Method II arguments (regarding abortion) as examples of what kind of life has moral worth: Species Criterion (S), Modified Species Criterion (MS), Strict Potentiality Criterion (SP), Modified Potentiality Criterion (MP), or Actual Possession Criterion (A). Since this fetus though human does not have the potential to develop the abilities of a person, for it has no upper brain, it does not have what is a necessary basis for rights.

Question 30

Do all arguments regarding abortion need to determine what is the moral status of the fetus? Explain.