Deck 9: Abortion

Question 1

Which of the following is the term used to refer to a stage in prenatal development which in humans begins at roughly the second week of pregnancy and lasts until roughly the eighth week?

A) fertilization
B) fetal stage
C) embryonic stage
D) viability

Answer 1

C

Question 2

An unborn vertebrate animal that has developed to the point of having the basic structure that is characteristic of its kind is known as

A) a zygote.
B) a blastocyst.
C) an embryo.
D) a fetus.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following theories will approach the morality of abortion by considering how much overall intrinsic value is likely to be brought about by abortion?

A) virtue ethics
B) consequentialist theory
C) Kantian ethics
D) natural law theory

Answer 3

B

Question 4

By definition, if a person or thing needs to be taken into account in moral decision-making (i.e., if it counts morally), then that person or thing has

A) moral standing.
B) moral permissibility.
C) viability.
D) all of the above

Question 5

Patrick Lee and Robert George argue that human embryos are complete human beings because

A) they are complete organisms that are genetically human.
B) unlike cells of the mother or father, their growth is directed toward survival and maturation.
C) both A and B
D) neither A nor B

Question 6

According to Lee and George, ova/sperm are not human beings because

A) they cannot reproduce.
B) they do not have a human genetic profile.
C) they are genetically and functionally identifiable as parts of the male or female potential parents.
D) all of the above

Question 7

In response to the argument that embryos are not persons because they do not exercise higher mental capacities, Lee and George argue that

A) embryos actually do exercise higher mental capacities.
B) it doesn't make sense to say that a person exercises higher mental capacities.
C) the argument is sound, but its validity fails due to a common logical fallacy.
D) to have killed a human embryos that developed into you would have been the same thing as killing you.

Question 8

In response to the argument that embryos are not persons because they lack certain rights that all persons have (such as the right to life), Lee and George argue that

A) the right to life belongs to a human being at all times that he or she exists.
B) the right to life belongs to all living creatures, human or not.
C) not all persons have the right to life-for example, a murderer has given up his or her right to life through his or her actions
D) all of the above

Question 9

According to Hursthouse's characterization of virtue ethics, an action is right if and only if

A) it is what a virtuous person would do in the circumstances.
B) it is what a vicious person would not avoid doing in the circumstances.
C) it produces the most virtue in the world compared to alternative actions.
D) all of the above

Question 10

What does Hursthouse say about the claim that any adequate action-guiding (i.e., moral) theory must provide clear guidance about what ought and ought not to be done that any intelligent person could follow?

A) She says the claim is very plausible.
B) She says the claim is implausible.
C) She says the claim is self-evident.
D) She says the claim is true.

Question 11

Which of the following is an example of a virtue?

A) honesty
B) courage
C) kindness
D) all of the above

Question 12

Which of the following is not an example of vice?

A) callousness
B) obesity
C) selfishness
D) greediness

Question 13

Marquis argues that abortion is morally wrong by

A) showing that a fetus is a person with full moral rights, including the right to life.
B) appealing to the fact that a fetus is biologically human and arguing that it is presumptively morally wrong to kill biologically human beings.
C) showing that a fetus is sentient and that it is morally wrong to harm and kill sentient creatures.
D) none of the above

Question 14

What does Marquis think is the main reason why it is wrong to kill a fetus?

A) The fetus can feel pain.
B) Abortion will harm the woman.
C) Killing the fetus would deprive it of a valuable future.
D) all of the above

Question 15

According to Marquis, abortion is

A) absolutely wrong.
B) seriously presumptively wrong.
C) generally permissible.
D) always permissible.

Question 16

According to Marquis, which of the following are benefits of his position on abortion?

A) It gets around problems with personhood accounts such as how to account for infanticide being wrong.
B) It provides a plausible analysis of personhood.
C) both of the above
D) neither of the above

Question 17

If Thomson's conclusion is correct, then

A) the abortion issue cannot be settled just by determining at what stage (if any) the fetus is a person.
B) abortion is always morally permissible.
C) abortion is never morally permissible.
D) the abortion issue can be settled just by determining at what stage (if any) the fetus is a person.

Question 18

One point of Thomson's "unconscious violinist" case is to show that

A) the fetus has a full right to life from conception.
B) the fetus does not have a full right to life until it is born or "wakes up."
C) there is something wrong with arguing directly from the claim that the fetus is a person to the conclusion that abortion is morally impermissible.
D) there is nothing wrong with arguing directly from the claim that the fetus is a person to the conclusion that abortion is morally impermissible.

Question 19

Thomson's appeal to the vices of callousness and self-centeredness relates to what kind of approach to abortion?

A) deontological approach
B) Kantian approach
C) virtue ethics approach
D) consequentalist approach

Question 20

Thomson discusses a different version of the violinist case wherein the violinist only needs to use your kidneys for one hour to survive. Her own view about this case is that

A) you have no obligation to let the violinist use your kidneys for that hour.
B) the violinist has an obligation to disconnect him- or herself before that hour is over.
C) because you ought to let the violinist use your kidneys for that hour, we should conclude that he or she has a right to use your kidneys for that hour.
D) even though you ought to let the violinist use your kidneys for that hour, we should not conclude that he or she has a right to use your kidneys for that hour.

Question 21

Little argues that the norms governing the moral permission of abortion are

A) impersonal and categorical.
B) merely a matter of the mother's preferences.
C) a complex matter of the mother's personal integrity and her ideals about motherhood and creation.
D) none of the above.

Question 22

Little argues that we should accept a prerogative on the part of mothers to end a pregnancy until the fetus is a person because

A) we should accept a prerogative to decline radical changes to one's practical identity.
B) abortion is absolutely morally wrong.
C) abortion is presumptively morally wrong but can become permissible in certain extreme cases.
D) there is no clear answer about the moral status of abortion.

Question 23

Little suggests that we should think about the abortion issue in terms of degrees and layers because

A) the fetus gains a more certain claim to the right to life over time.
B) the fetus gains more capacities over time.
C) a gestating mother is somewhere in between a mere biological mother and a mother in a thick, normative sense.
D) the gestating mother has different degrees and layers of preferences.

Question 24

When we think about the norms of creation, Little argues that

A) it can be a sign of respect to terminate a pregnancy when certain background conditions, like a loving family, are not met.
B) it is never a sign of respect to terminate a pregnancy, because we should value and hold sacred the act of creation.
C) we see the abortion issue as a matter of the personal preferences of the mother.
D) none of the above.

Question 25

Something has direct moral standing when its standing depends entirely on its being related to something else that has direct moral standing.

Question 26

The labels "pro-choice" and "liberal" are often used to refer to those who morally oppose abortion.

Question 27

Those who defend a conservative view about the morality of abortion often argue that in early pregnancy the fetus possesses features that are sufficient for having strong direct moral standing.

Question 28

Patrick Lee and Robert George argue that human embryos are incomplete human beings.

Question 29

According to Lee and George, it is a mistake to consider an ova/sperm a human being.

Question 30

Lee and George argue that every individual person is identical to a physical organism.

Question 31

According to Hursthouse, approaching the abortion issue from the perspective of virtue ethics makes appealing to rights importantly relevant to the moral issue properly understood.

Question 32

According to Hursthouse, virtue ethics answered both the question "What should I do?" and the question "What sort of person should I be?"

Question 33

According to Marquis, a necessary condition of resolving the abortion controversy is a theoretical account of the wrongness of killing.

Question 34

Marquis claims that his explanation for what makes killing wrong is compatible with the view that it is wrong to kill only beings that are biologically human.

Question 35

Marquis says that his argument relies on the inference that since it is wrong to kill persons, it is wrong to kill potential persons. 7. Thomson claims that while a fetus is a person at the moment of conception, this is morally unimportant.

Question 36

According to Thomson, in some cases abortion will be callous or self-centered, and in such cases a woman ought not to choose abortion.

Question 37

Thomson is arguing that a mother has the right to secure the death of her unborn child, even if it could survive unattached to her.

Question 38

Thomson argues that we ought to adopt Good Samaritan laws or Very Good Samaritan laws, instead of Minimally Decent Samaritan laws.

Question 39

In the case of where the violinist needs to use your kidneys for one hour, Thomson argues that you ought to let the violinist do so, but we should not conclude that the violinist has a right to do so.

Question 40

Thomson argues in favor of the right to secure the death of an unborn child.

Question 41

Little claims that the fact of being a mother is a purely biological matter.

Question 42

On Little's view, there are categorical moral claims about when it is wrong to terminate a pregnancy.

Question 43

According to Little, some cases where we might say that bringing a child into the world causes a harm to the child can be explained by the violence the that such an act would do to the mother's ideals of creation and parenthood.

Question 44

Little suggests that the issue of abortion is a matter of balancing an ethics of destruction with an ethics of creation.

Question 45

Some of the recent moral and legal controversy over abortion has focused on a particular procedure known as intact dilation and extraction, which its opponents refer to as _________ birth abortion.

Question 46

The state of pregnancy wherein it is possible for the fetus to survive outside the uterus is known as _________.

Question 47

The 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in _________ v. Wade made many abortions legal.

Question 48

On the account offered by Patrick Lee and Robert George, persons do not possess or inhabit bodies, rather they _________ living bodies.

Question 49

Lee and George believe that fetuses are _________, if immature, human beings.

Question 50

Lee and George argue that _________ is false because we are not identical to nonphysical consciousnesses but are rather identical to something physical.

Question 51

According to Lee and George, the choice of abortion is _________ wrong in the sense that the choice is wrong regardless of how someone feels about it.

Question 52

In Hursthouse's view, some abortions are wrong because they express such _________ as callousness, greediness, or selfishness.

Question 53

According to Hursthouse, the abortion debate is typically cast in terms of the apparent and conflicting _________ of the fetus and the pregnant woman.

Question 54

According to virtue ethics, a(n) _________, says Hursthouse, is a character trait a human being needs to flourish or live well.

Question 55

Marquis argues that it is wrong to kill normal adult human beings because they have a "_________ like ours."

Question 56

The purpose of Marquis's essay is to develop a general argument for the claim that the overwhelming majority of deliberate abortions are seriously _________.

Question 57

According to Marquis, what primarily makes killing wrong is neither its effect on the murderer nor its effect on the victim's friends and relatives but rather its effect on the _________.

Question 58

Thomson notes that in most states in the United States women are compelled by law to be not merely minimally decent Samaritans, but _________ Samaritans to unborn persons inside them.

Question 59

According to Thomson, a very early abortion is surely not the _________ of a person, and so early abortions are not dealt with in her paper.

Question 60

Thomson argues that parents do not have any special responsibility for their child simply by virtue of their _________ relationship to it.

Question 61

Little suggests that we accept moral prerogatives to decline changes to one's _________ identity.

Question 62

In opposition to the classical liberal and conservative view, Little suggests that there are _________ to personhood.

Question 63

On Little's view, the choice of whether or not to continue a pregnancy can be a matter of _________, which is normatively weighty in a way that mere preferences are not but is also not morally categorical.

Question 64

According to Little, thinking about abortion should be marked by how an individual person considers what it means to be a _________ creator.