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When The Ethics of Abortion first appeared, this powerful collection of essays gained instant recognition as one of the first attempts to present both sides of the abortion debate in the words of leading proponents. Now, after two major Supreme Court cases, intense political wrangling, and heavy ...

When The Ethics of Abortion first appeared, this powerful collection of essays gained instant recognition as one of the first attempts to present both sides of the abortion debate in the words of leading proponents. Now, after two major Supreme Court cases, intense political wrangling, and heavy media coverage of often violent public demonstrations, the editors have updated and revised this groundbreaking book by adding thirteen new selections and retaining many popular selections from the previous edition. Comprehensive and balanced, this popular volume in Prometheus's "Contemporary Issues" series offers nineteen essays and three excerpts from the high court's opinions in Roe v. Wade, which changed the face of abortion law for all time; Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989), which regulated the use of public facilities for abortions; and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), which imposed a waiting period and permitted parental notification. This provocative anthology covers such compelling issues as the pre-Roe abortion period in American history, abortion and the Constitution, abortion and feminism, abortion and Christianity, as well as the fundamental moral issues.

The central thesis of philosopher David Boonin is that the moral case against abortion can be shown to be unsuccessful on terms that critics of abortion can and do accept. Critically examining a wide array of arguments that have attempted to establish that every human fetus has a right to life ...

The central thesis of philosopher David Boonin is that the moral case against abortion can be shown to be unsuccessful on terms that critics of abortion can and do accept. Critically examining a wide array of arguments that have attempted to establish that every human fetus has a right to life, Boonin posits that all of these arguments fail on their own terms. He then argues that even if the fetus does have a right to life, abortion can still be shown to be morally permissible on the critic of abortion's own terms. Finally, Boonin considers a number of arguments against abortion that do not depend on the claim that the fetus has a right to life, including those based on the golden rule, considerations of uncertainty and a commitment to certain feminist principles, and asserts that these positions, too, are ultimately unsuccessful. The result is the most thorough and detailed case for the moral permissibility of abortion that has yet been written. David Boonin is professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado. He is the author of Thomas Hobbes and the Science of Moral Virtue (Cambridge, 1994).