Effect on the Victim

In Don Marquis' article he states "What primarily makes killing wrong is neither its effect on the murderer nor its effect on the victim's friends and relatives, but its effect on the victim. The loss of one's life is one of the greatest losses one can suffer. The loss of one's life deprives one of all the experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that would otherwise have constituted one's future."

I partially agree with the idea that what makes killing wrong is the effect on the victim and not the external figures. However, I do also believe in Thomson's argument, that often times dialogues regarding abortion focus on the fetus and its development and not on the mother herself. In this case the external figure is crucial to the argument. I believe some of Thomson's arguments are very powerful, while others could be furthered developed, but I genuinely appreciate her view on the topic and found it insightful. In the patriarchal society we live in, we often forget to evaluate a woman's right to her own body, and I myself had never thought about this argument in regards to a woman's agency over her body and what occurs inside of it.

That being said, I did not want to focus on whether killing is wrong due to external forces, rather I wanted to focus on the sentence where he states that the loss of one's life deprives one of experiences, activities, etc. Many things can deprive an individual of experiences, activities, etc., abortion is not the only issue which may interfere with enjoyments that would have otherwise constituted one's future. For example, let's say that a mother who wants to have an abortion but is not allowed to, because of laws or any other reason, decides to follow through with her pregnancy. In this scenario she would be moral because she is not depriving the tiny human of his or her future. However, let's say that although she decides to follow through with her pregnancy, she begins to indulge in unhealthy behavior, such as indulging in drugs. If we suppose that she ingests enough substances to harm her child and affect his or her mental and physical condition, she would be depriving her child of many experiences, activities, projects, etc. due to the effects of the substances. She may not be fully depriving her child but she would still deprive the child of many experiences. Since other things outside of abortion may have the power to heavily alter one's life experiences, to the extent where one may not be dead but may end up in a vegetative state, I believe the premise of Marquis' paper is ultimately flawed.