Philosophy Essay – Abortion Introduction When does life actually begin? When, if ever, is it right to terminate a pregnancy? These are some of the moral dilemmas that are faced when dealing with the issue of abortion. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. There are many different stands held on the issue of abortion. For those holding a conservative view on abortion, abortion is never acceptable except when necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman. In contrast, the liberal view believes that abortion is always ethically acceptable at any point of fetal development, and for any reason. Finally, there are those in the middle, that hold the moderate view. They believe that abortion is ethically acceptable up to a certain point of fetal development and that some reasons are acceptable. Mary Anne Warren's Argument for Abortion Mary Anne Warren's stand on abortion is that of a liberal one. In her article, On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, she concludes that "...a !
             women's right to protect her health, happiness, freedom, and even her life, by terminating an unwanted pregnancy, will always override whatever right to life it may be appropriate to ascribe to a fetus, even a fully developed one." (pg.16, Mappes) Warren believes that abortion is permittable because the fetus is not a fully developed person with moral characteristics; they are human beings that are not yet a person. She contends that in order to be considered a human, we must satisfy five traits. These five traits are: 1 consciousness (of objects and events external and/or internal to the being), and in particular the capacity to feel pain: 2 reasoning (the developed capacity to solve new and relatively complex problems); 3 self-motivated activity (activity which is relatively independent of either genetic or direct external control); 4 the capacity to communicate, by whatever means, messages of an indefinite variety of types, ...