Guybrush

^I don't actually think potential is that important, at least not with fetuses. You don't know if the child is going to survive birth or not or if something else is going to happen to it. There are arguments that say you could base your moral decisions on the future, but then you're basing it on a scenario which might not even happen so I think in those push-shove cases, you base it on the present - what you know and what is.

That might sound like a contradiction to my example above, but it's not. I already wrote that when push comes to shove like when lives are at stake, I think you have to choose what causes most happiness / least suffering. The old man would probably tolerate death more than the young man, he's had a life and is old and is probably more emotionally suited to deal with the idea of dying. The people who would be touched by his death would probably have an easier time accepting the death of 90 year old granpa than the close family and friends of the 14 year old boy.

By this moralistic thinking, you have to think a bit and evaluate the worth of your actions. There's perhaps a bit of predictive thinking in that, but at least not the sort where you don't kill the boy because he might have a family in 20 years.

I'm not really a utilitarian on a day-to-day basis. My moral ideals are usually quite normative and absolute, but I do realize that the "thou shalt not" sense of morale is a luxury for those who don't have to make tough decisions themselves. If killing 1 would save a million, would killing still be wrong? I believe in abortion when I believe the abortion causes more happiness/less suffering than the alternative.

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Something Completely Different

OceanAndSilence

that's the problem with the whole discussion - human lives and human life is regarded as highly important. on a basic level we live to procreate. it's too complex to be a quality or quantity of life issue, and that is why people are concerned with the future of their present actions. if i were to have a kid (with someone) i'd suggest adoption before abortion. that's my stance.