A defense of abortion /

This book should become the new philosophical standard for the moral permissibility of abortion. Boonin (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) makes a carefully detailed case against the main antiabortion arguments, presenting a well-argued defense of abortion. His book is copiously documented. Chapter 1 explains his methodological approach. Chapter 2 considers arguments against abortion based on the claim that the fetus has a right to life from conception and finds that each fails on its own terms. Chapter 3 examines arguments against abortion based on the premise that the fetus acquires the right to life after conception, concluding that the fetus acquires this right when its brain reaches a level of maturity based on consciousness sometime late in pregnancy. Consequently, chapters 2 and 3 contend that the central claim needed to sustain the rights-based argument against abortion fails by the abortion critic's own terms. Chapter 4 argues that even if the fetus has a right to life, abortion is permissible in most actual cases. Therefore, even if the analyses of chapters 2 and 3 fail, the rights-based argument against abortion still fails. Chapter 5 considers nonrights-based arguments against abortion and finds them lacking. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. R. Werner Hamilton College