Personhood and After-Birth Abortion

Joshua J. Craddock, Personhood and After-Birth Abortion, 40 Human Life Rev. 97 (2014).

Abstract

Two Australian ethicists writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics recently ignited controversy by suggesting that infanticide or “after-birth abortion” should be tolerated. Given the contextual background of Kermit Gosnell's prosecution, this paper re-examines the argument for after-birth abortion as advanced by Giubilini and Minerva, and concludes that the authors misunderstand human personhood and fail to justify their own ethical reasoning. 

The article first reconstructs Giubilini and Minerva's argument and situates it in a philosophical tradition alongside similar arguments for infanticide. The article then critiques Giubilini and Minerva's functionalist account of human personhood and critically analyzes their reasoning. The article concludes by observing that Giubilini and Minerva either prove that infanticide should be legal or that society’s definition of personhood must be reconsidered and abortion, like infanticide, should be illegal.