WorksheetsPhilosophical Views on Personhood and Abortion
Total questions: 20
Worksheet time: 10mins
According to John Finnis and Lee and George, when does personhood begin?
At conception
When the fetus becomes conscious
At viability
At birth
Which key idea defines the Biological view of personhood?
A person is anyone who is biologically human
Personhood depends on rationality
Personhood depends on relationships
Only sentient beings count as persons
Which of Warren's traits of personhood is included in her list?
Consciousness
Emotional maturity
Viability
Genetic humanity
Peter Singer argues that species membership alone is morally relevant.
True
False
Which thinker argues that a newborn infant is not yet a person because it lacks self-awareness?
Michael Tooley
Margaret Little
Bonnie Steinbock
Robert Spaemann
The Relational View of personhood claims that...
Personhood depends on relationships and recognition
Personhood begins at viability
Personhood starts at conception
A person is anyone with a soul
Which philosopher emphasises the special moral importance of the pregnancy relationship?
Margaret Little
Jeff McMahan
John Locke
Don Marquis
Rosalind Hursthouse applies which ethical theory to abortion?
Virtue Ethics
Natural Law
Situation Ethics
Kantian Ethics
The Gradualist View claims that personhood...
Develops in stages with no single starting point
Depends on being wanted
Starts suddenly at conception
Begins at viability
Jeff McMahan and Bonnie Steinbock are associated with which view?
Gradualist
Relational
Biological
Potentiality
Don Marquis argues abortion is wrong because...
It deprives the fetus of future experiences and goods
It harms the mother
It violates social expectations
It violates the categorical imperative
Marquis argues embryos matter morally because they are already conscious.
True
False
Judith Jarvis Thomson's violinist analogy is designed to show that...
Even if the fetus is a person the woman may not be obligated to sustain its life
Abortion is always morally wrong
Personhood begins at conception
Viability determines moral rights
In Thomson's thought experiment the violinist represents...
An unwanted fetus
A moral stranger
A physician
A parent
According to Natural Law, abortion is wrong primarily because...
It breaks the precept to preserve life
It causes emotional trauma
It violates bodily autonomy
It is not mentioned in scripture
Situation Ethics evaluates abortion based on...
The most loving outcome
The fetus’s biological humanity
Whether it follows universal rules
The act’s conformity to natural purposes
A Virtue Ethics approach to abortion focuses on...
The woman’s character and motives
The fetus’s potential
The fetus’s cognitive abilities
Legal definitions of personhood
Which view argues that a fetus matters morally because it has the inherent potential to become an adult person?
Potentiality
Psychological
Biological
Relational
According to the Psychological or Cognitive view, personhood begins when...
The fetus gains mental capacities such as consciousness
The fetus is recognised as a person by others
The fetus is viable
The fetus has a future like ours
Viability is widely accepted by philosophers as the point when personhood begins.
True
False
