Abortion and Infanticide: a Radical Libertarian Defence

Abstract

This essay’s main argument is in two parts. First, even on the assumption of personhood, there need be no overall inflicted harm with abortion and infanticide including when there is direct killing. Second, it is paradoxical to suppose that there is a moral obligation to do more than avoid inflicting overall harm. However, there is also a defence of the thesis that unborn and infant humans are not persons in the intellectual sense that has special moral value. Various relevant criticisms are responded to throughout and at the end, with reference to property rights and contracts where appropriate.

Keywords: abortion, infanticide, libertarianism, personhood, Don Marquis, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Mary Anne Warren