Argumentum Dignitatis

I don’t know if that bit of Latin is correct, but whatever. I like fanciful blog post titles.

Alexander Pruss is an actual philosopher at Baylor University. This means—as usual— he’s an atheist a Christian! Yup, a philosopher who is a Christian, rarer than hen’s teeth in American philosophy departments from what I’ve read.

Here, he posits an argument against most abortions based on ‘dignity.’ An excerpt:

1. (Premise) If x has dignity, it is wrong to intentionally kill x primarily for the sake of a benefit to someone other than x.
2. (Premise) Elderly people whose minds are functioning very poorly have dignity.
3. (Premise) If elderly people whose minds are functioning very poorly have dignity, fetal humans have dignity.
4. Therefore, it is wrong to kill a fetal human primarily for the sake of a benefit to someone other than the fetus.

He then proceeds to defend several of the premises with additional arguments. Good stuff, go read.