Volume 23, Issue 2, Fall 2016
Bioethics
Lani Roberts
Pages 52-56
The Phenomenology of Abortion Decisions
The philosophical treatment of abortion has rarely placed actual women at the center of the discussion. This essay argues that moral decisions are made by actual persons and a woman, as a person, is more than a breeder of humans. Drawing on an analogy with the treatment of light in quantum physics, it also argues that the status of a fertilized ovum is indeterminate, often dependent on the context of the woman's life.