Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice

Cambridge University Press, August 2007. Paper Back. New. <i>Defending Life</i> argues in compelling, yet relatively simple terms that ending an unborn life, whether through abortion or fetal cell research, is morally wrong. Beckwith, a philosopher and law professor, makes the moral and legal case that the universal idea of human equality - which 'provided the intellectual scaffolding for the Declaration of Independence, the abolitionist movement...and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial' - extends to all members of the human community, including the unborn. What sets this book apart from many pro-life treatises is the framing of its arguments in strictly secular terms, making them accessible regardless of religious belief, or the lack thereof. Furthermore, Beckwith recapitulates - and dismantles - in thoughtful detail not only the pro-choice arguments of mainstream culture, but those advanced by today's most articulate pro-choice philosophers and academics. The book examines broadly the moral reasoning (especially the flawed assertions of moral relativism) and legal context underlying the abortion debate; the scientific evidence that human life begins at conception; and the moral implications of fetal stem cell research and cloning. Despite its rather academic tone (and an abundance of the sorts of extreme hypothetical 'examples' that often make laypeople impatient with philosophers), this book is a invaluable resource for any serious reader and 'likely to remain for a long time the most thorough and detailed statement of the pro-life position.' (Jean M. Yarborough, Bowdoin College) 296 pp.