Making peace in gestational conflicts

Theor Med. 1992 Dec;13(4):319-28. doi: 10.1007/BF02126698.

Abstract

Mary Anne Warren's claim that "there is room for only one person with full and equal rights inside a single human skin" ([1], p. 63) calls attention to the vast range of moral conflict engendered by assigning full basic moral rights to fetuses. Thereby, it serves as a goad to thinking about conflicts between pregnant women and their fetuses in a way that emphasizes relationships rather than rights. I sketch out what a 'care orientation' might suggest about resolving gestational conflicts. I also argue that the care orientation, with its commitment to the significance of the partial and the particular, cannot be absorbed within standard, impartialist moral theory.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Ethics, Medical*
  • Female
  • Freedom
  • Human Rights*
  • Humans
  • Maternal-Fetal Relations*
  • Personhood
  • Pregnancy
  • Pregnant Women*
  • Prenatal Care / legislation & jurisprudence*