Objection to Jarvis-Thomson #4:This view of parental responsibility seems coldhearted and selfish.

An introduction to Virtue Ethics

My anti-choice students often accuse women who get abortions of being selfish. Note that this introduces a radically different approach to ethical arguments, often called virtue ethics. Instead of talking about rights and justice, we are now talking about character. Instead of talking about laws and rules, we are talking about human personalities, and what human characteristics are admirable or despicable.

One could respond to this objection by saying that refusing to get an abortion can also be sign of bad character. Anti-choice advocates often argue that if a woman feels hesitancy or sorrow about an abortion, this indicates that she knows it must be wrong. But some morally right decisions are hard, and it is often easier to be squeamish about difficult decisions than to do the right thing. If a woman grieves for the loss of her fetus, that does not prove that she believes the fetus has a right-to-life. I grieved the loss of my cat and wrote about it here. But although I felt loss and sorrow, I know I did the right thing to end her life and her suffering. Similarly, I believe it shows bad character if your pity for an undeveloped fetus lets you ignore the implications of bringing an actual child in the world when you are not ready to take full responsibility for it. I wouldn’t call such bad character selfish, because it hurts the mother herself as much as it hurts…