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Pence's Argument That Abortion Is Wrong

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Pence states that the arguments given by philosophers such as Don Marquis, that abortion is wrong because it is killing potential person, can be easily counter-argued. Pence raises three main objections to the position that Marquis took. The first objection is that the premise Marquis raised of "What is wrong with killing a person?". Marquis argues that it is wrong because it deprives someone of a future and it violates their rights. In response, Pence argues that we first must decide whether or not a fetus has a future and rights that could potentially be attacked through abortion. (Pence, pg 93) He uses an analogy of, what if God decided to create a second parallel universe where he allowed cognitive experience and Satan attacked it, then it would be considered wrong. However, he argues that if God did not allow cognitive experiences in the second world and it was attacked, it would not be wrong because no one was experiencing things. He then relates it to if a potential human fetus was not born, it could not be wrong because they had no experiences, therefore we were not failing to allow potential cognition. (Pence, pg 93) …show more content…
seems to be the root behind. However, he questions whether or not potential is the same as becoming an actual person, as stated in the previous argument. He also questions whether or not, thousands of "people" die by lack of adoption, because if they are not adopted they will lack certain cognitive experiences. Neurologically, a person is defined as someone with a detectable brain wave, which develops in a fetus at approximately 25 weeks. He argues that until 25 weeks, a fetus is not considered a person because they lack brain waves. (Pence, pg

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