4min chapter

Making Sense with Sam Harris cover image

#287 — Why Wealth Matters

Making Sense with Sam Harris

CHAPTER

Is It Ethical to Terminate a Pregnancy at Ten Weeks?

There is simply no valid ethical argument that privileges the interests of a single fertilized ovum over those of a woman whose life is going to be completely deranged by being forced to have a child. The most important question for me is at what point in development can a foetus conceivably suffer? And here, it's reasonable to think that sensory connections to the cortex are the relevant threshold. Given what we know about developmental neuro science, i would say that the first should be at the total discretion of the mother and the second should require very serious justification like saving the mother's life or saving the child from some utterly herrific suffering if it was born.

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