Privacy

Abortion and privacy

One secular argument is not concerned with the rights of the foetus but with whether law and morality have any business interfering in the matter at all.

Some people argue that certain decisions should be reserved for the private lives of individual members of society. They say that moral theorists and lawmakers should not interfere.

This argument is often applied to abortion, and says that the decision should be left to the woman who is considering an abortion.

But the argument is seriously flawed. The reason some activities are said to fall into the private category is that they don't harm anyone. And one of the biggest questions about abortion is just that: is the foetus a 'person'?

So although the privacy argument may sound attractive, it merely distances us from the ethical argument but eventually brings us back to the problem of the rights of the foetus.