Beyond the Abortion Wars

April 1, 2015

Camosy (theology, Fordham Univ.; For Love of Animals) argues that the polarization between pro-choice and pro-life positions on abortion can be overcome. The trend in popular thinking, he suggests, has moved away from abortion on demand, but by no means do most people favor a total ban on the procedure. Camosy maintains that philosophical arguments support what he takes to be the emerging dominant view: the fetus has a right to existence because it has a natural potential to human life. As such, direct killing of the fetus is, in general, morally wrong. (However, a pregnancy owing to sexual assault or one in which the mother's life is at stake are exceptions.) Camosy favors a broad program of aid to women through government programs in order to alleviate the burden a pregnancy often imposes. He contends that the plan he favors (restrictions on abortion combined with aid to women) will do more to help women than unlimited access to abortion and provocatively suggests that it is men, not women, who benefit from liberal policies. VERDICT Readers interested in bioethics and public policy will find this a valuable source of information and arguments on abortion; it compares favorably with Christopher Kaczor's The Ethics of Abortion and is likely to be viewed, though, as an intervention on the pro-life side rather than as the compromise the author presents it as being.--David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., OH

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