英文摘要 |
Ronald Dworkin(1931-2013) is one of the contemporary representative figures of liberal legalism. In his Life's Dominion, Dworkin observes that the disputation of abortion indicates the collision of two extreme forces. On the one hand, the extreme pro-life conservatism denounces any kind of abortion unless the mother's life is at risk in delivering. On the other hand, the extreme pro-choice liberalism tends to support all kinds of abortion during pregnancy. But in Dworkin's eyes, these two extremities drift off the course of the debate on abortion. He thinks that the key point of this issue is that we should not talk from the ‘derivative view' of rights but that we have to stand on the pro-life point of view, which is the ‘detached view', and make argumentation on ‘what and how to do to preserve the respect for the sanctity of human life' so that the hostility can be reconcile. The study observes Dworkin's ethics of abortion from three perspectives: 1) a discussion of Dworkin's ‘detached view' of rights and the intrinsic value and the sanctity of human life, 2) an analysis of Dworkin's moral reasoning on the ethics of abortion and the issues involved thereof, and 3) a critical review of Dworkin's ethics of abortion. Dworkin's ethics of abortion aims to persuade the pro-life supporters into believing that sometimes abortion is a gesture of the respect for the sanctity of human life. He argues that the government should take a neutral attitude towards the sanctity of human life in light of religious beliefs and cannot put an all-out ban on abortion. Ironically, this results in the consolidation of the autonomy of procreation! Therefore, what he called the ‘parallel interpretations' on the ethics of abortion and the nomology of abortion is actually an ethics slanting towards the nomology of abortion. |