|
| Harm to the Father |  The abortion issue is generally devoted to dealing with the rights of the fetus and the mother. And everybody knows that the rights and concerns of the father are rarely discussed.
Nevertheless, the philosopher George W. Harris has brought on the thought that there are circumstances under which a woman's decision to perform an abortion would be morally unjust because it would cause harm to the father.
The argumentation is the following:
If the father has a morally legitimate interest in having a child, and the mother misleads the father into believing that she will give him a child if he does certain things, and the father does those things for the certain purpose of having a family, then it is wrong for the mother after careful consideration to prevent the father from having that child.
These cases involve premeditated ruse by the woman:
- he wants children but she doesn't
- she deceives him by not telling him that she doesn't want a family
- he devotes himself to her and the much wanted family
- she is unintentionally becomes pregnant
- he is pleased but she performs an abortion
- the mother has a relationship as part of a strategy to hurt men
- she pretends to love him, and pretends to want a child
- he devotes himself to her and the much wanted family
- she becomes pregnant
- she aborts the unborn child after care consideration to hurt the father
Some people raise an objection to this by saying that the wrong comes from the intentional misconduct of the mother, rather than from any moral right of the father.
Harris give a reply by arguing that abortion itself causes a further harm to the father in addition to the deception - the wrong caused by the deceit is a separate wrong (although necessary for the abortion to be wrong).
|
|
