The Illusion of Neutrality: Abortion and the Foundations of Justice

Abstract

This article will assail one of the central aspirations of Rawlsians and other liberal neutralists in the context of debates over some high-profile issues of political morality. I will ponder chiefly the problem of abortion, but I will also much more briefly treat of some other matters which are similar to that problem in respects that bear directly on my critique of neutralism. As this article will argue, the issues explored herein stymie the efforts of liberal neutralists to prescind from certain vexed points of contention ─ not because those issues render the avoidance of such points of contention especially difficult, but because they render it impossible.

Keywords: abortion, liberal neutralism, John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Ronald Dworkin, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, Judith Jarvis Thomson