Study Guide
Mary Ann Warren - The Personhood Argument in Favor of Abortion
1. What question does Warren identify as crucial to solving the problem of
the moral status of abortion?
2. What are the two senses of the word 'human' that Warren identifies? Explain
each.
3. What is Warren's point in asking us to imagine a space traveler landing
on an unknown planet?
4. What five traits does Warren find most central to personhood?
5. Does Warren believe a being must have all five traits to be a person?
Are any of the traits absolutely necessary? Is any set less than all five
sufficient for personhood?
6. What does Warren believe abotu a being that lacked all five traits central
to personhood?
7. According to Warren, what relationship does being a person have to being
a member of the moral community/having moral rights?
8. Does Warren think that there could be human beings who are not persons?
Persons who are not human beings?
9. What conclusions does Warren draw about beings that are like persons,
but are not yet persons? In particular, what does Warren say about Thomson's
case of a woman having an abortion in her seventh month of pregnancy, just
to avoid postponing a trip to Europe?
10. What conclusions does Warren reach about beings that have the potential
to become persons, but are not yet persons? In particular, explain the point
of the example of the captured space-traveler.
11. Does Warren think infanticide is murder? Does Warren think infanticide
is morally permissible? Why/why not?
12. Does Warren's position on infanticide impact her position on the permisssibility
of late-term abortions? Why/why not?