Deck 48: Virtue Theory and Abortion Rosalind Hursthouse

Question 1

According to Hursthouse, the familiar facts of pregnancy include

A) it is the result of sexual intercourse.
B) it lasts about nine months.
C) parents tend to care passionately about their offspring.
D) All of the above

Answer 1

D

Question 2

To determine the morality of abortion, which of the following questions would be relevant for Hursthouse?

A) At what point does human life begin?
B) In having an abortion, would this woman be acting virtuously, viciously, or neither?
C) Does a woman have the right to do as she chooses with her own body?
D) All of the above

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Hursthouse argues that the current philosophical literature on abortion is badly out of touch with reality because it

A) ignores familiar biological facts about human reproduction.
B) fails to take the anti-abortion perspective seriously.
C) disregards the role of politics in moral disputes.
D) overlooks the history of the women's rights movement.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Hursthouse believes that a virtuous person would never

A) recommend an abortion to someone whose life was not at stake.
B) view miscarriage as a less than tragic loss.
C) see abortion as simply the exercise of a moral right.
D) take a woman's decision to have an abortion as a reflection of a moral failing.

Question 5

According to Hursthouse, a woman who decides to have an abortion because she believes she is "not ready for motherhood yet" may be showing which of the following?

A) Cowardice
B) A lack of seriousness
C) Humility
D) Any of the above

Question 6

According to Hursthouse's understanding of the morality of abortion, what follows from the supposition that women have a moral right to terminate their pregnancies?

A) The morality of abortion is a matter of individual conscience.
B) Legal prohibitions against abortion are at best misguided.
C) Men should have no role in deliberations about whether to have an abortion.
D) None of the above

Question 7

Hursthouse emphasizes that abortion is a serious matter because of its connection with

A) the claims to authority over women's bodies made by the state.
B) all our thoughts about human life and death, parenthood, and family.
C) gender roles and the injustice often surrounding them.
D) N not one of the above

Question 8

Which of the following does Hursthouse consider to be crucial considerations for the ethics of abortion?

A) The status of the fetus
B) The rights of women
C) Both the status of the fetus and the rights of women
D) Neither the status of the fetus nor the rights of women

Question 9

In response to the criticism that virtue ethics has unresolvable conflicts built into it, Hursthouse

A) denies that such a problem arises.
B) admits that there is a problem but claims that it is very easily solved.
C) admits that there is a problem but claims that other theories face the same problem.
D) admits that there is a problem and that it is unique to virtue theory.

Question 10

The Greek word eudaimonia roughly means

A) flourishing.
B) justice.
C) duty.
D) pleasure.

Question 11

Hursthouse believes that it is possible to act viciously in doing something one has a moral right to do.

Question 12

Hursthouse believes that abortion is intrinsically immoral.

Question 13

Hursthouse claims that every virtue generates a positive instruction, and every vice, a prohibition.

Question 14

According to Hursthouse, virtue theorists are committed to defining all of our moral concepts in terms of the virtuous agent.

Question 15

Hursthouse thinks that it is possible to seek an abortion for shallow or selfish reasons.

Question 16

Hursthouse sees abortion as the cutting off of a human life.

Question 17

The developmental stage of the fetus is not relevant to the morality of abortion according to Hursthouse.

Question 18

Hursthouse thinks that a secular ethics of abortion should make no claims about the "sanctity of life."

Question 19

Hursthouse sees abortion as fundamentally the same as any other form of killing.

Question 20

Why doesn't Hursthouse consider the moral problem of abortion in terms of a general rule or principle? In your view, is this evidence of the strength or the weakness of her virtue theory approach?

Question 21

Hursthouse claims that to take pregnancy lightly is to display callousness and light-mindedness. What argument does she supply in support of this claim? Do you find this line of argument compelling? Why or why not?

Question 22

Why does Hursthouse dismiss the dominant considerations of most discussions of abortion as "irrelevant"? Is she right to do so?

Question 23

What implications does Hursthouse claim that virtue theory has for the abortion debate? Does virtue theory provide reasonable moral guidance on this issue? Why or why not?