ABORTION AND THE SLIPPERY SLOPE
Kohl, Marvin
Consider the question of whether or not we can correctly say that a human fetus is a human being. I am inclined to believe that a negative answer is correct. Others disagree. They maintain...
...When deciding whether or not something is to be named by linguistic items of this kind, the fluent speaker is never troubled by borderline cases...
...But the level of intelligence required is not high, and the man of average intelligence easily makes these distinctions and judgments...
...It was a mistake to believe that such fallacies occur simply because of semantic oversight or confusion...
...We only conclude that it is permissible to kill that 6 For a treatment of this and related issues, see: the section on consequentialist arguments in my paper "The Sanctity of the Life Principle," Humanistic Perspectives in Medical Ethics, ed...
...the negative: there is overwhelming evidence that human beings compartmentalize their ideas, and it is only when the normal process of compartmentalization breaks down that one encounters difficulties...
...Admittedly, the living seed of an oak tree has been killed...
...the tree is not...
...Is human life more of a continuum than a series of graded acts of killing...
...However, there is a point upon which I was mistaken...
...They do not, and I suspect would not, want to argue that we cannot reasonably distinguish red from 8 A fluent speaker is "one who has perfect linguistic competence and whose performancematches that competence...
...Maurice Visscher (Buffalo: Prometheus Books), forthcoming...
...And one of the more important constraints is that the process is limited by the concept of "same kind or same class of objects...
...The assump tion being made, which I regard as mistaken, is that the meaning of a compound noun is always the result of a simple combination of nonambiguous components and that this com bination never involves a shift in meaning...
...I suggested that the word being is ambiguous: 'Norman St...
...Moreover, why can't we hold the newly proposed line...
...As might be expected, we have an answer to our question, but the answer is less credulous than the original argument...
...But it is mere confusion to suggest that the killing of a seed of a tree is the same as killing a tree...
...The seed and the tree may both be members of the same growth form...
...Congressional Record, 91st Congress, 2d Sess., 1970, vol...
...Bart Heffernan, in his Amicus Curiae Brief, 4 provides part of the explanation when he says that "Human life is a continuum, and if those at one end can be exterminated, why not those at the other...
...Although this is a favorite elitist tactic, it is, nonetheless, pernicious nonsense...
...What is important is that advocates of the "slippery slope" should be taking the opposite tack...
...149-51...
...A fluent speaker, I went on to argue, would not say that every human fetus (being,) is a human being2 because he understands that in essence this is to assert that all unborn human progeny are born human progeny, and that this is self-contradictory...
...Why is it that adequate lines can be drawn between permissible and nonpermissible killing, but cannot be drawn between born and unborn progeny...
...The version used in the abortion controversy says that the development of a human being from conception through birth into childhood is continuous and that to draw a line in this process is to make an arbitrary choice, a choice for which in the nature of things no good reason can be found or given...
...Not only are there objective differences, but I seriously doubt whether a pregnant woman or a mother would view the distinction between unborn and born progeny to be as arbitrary and unimportant as our "slippery slope" minded colleagues would have us believe...
...If they were consistent they would argue that all materialobject and related-process words are indeterminate or vague...
...LINES CAN BE, and are, reasonably drawn, especially in the case of material objects and related processes...
...We do not have to look far for an answer...
...116, no...
...I am inclined to believe that a negative answer is correct...
...H10288-89...
...kind of insect, or at most, all kinds of insects...
...But they do not...
...Better yet and a stronger claim, for the fluent speaker,3 all material object words and related processes denote perfectly determinate classes...
...I think this question is best answered in 4 Brief and Appendices of Dr...
...Nor do we proceed, either in fact or in mind, to kill all human beings...
...Of course it would be absurd to deny that the ability to draw and hold conceptual lines is a function of intelligence...
...If we can kill in self-defense, in capital punishment, and in wartime, if these exceptions can be made, then why can't abortion be another exception...
...Something has been killed...
...He, for example, has no difficulty in distinguishing water from ice, acorns from oak trees, and fetuses from born progeny...
...at least not in this context...
...6 This doesn't mean human beings don't make mistakes...
...84, pp...
...But it does mean that in the normal process of generalization there are constraints...
...They maintain that the fetus is a human being and usually advance some version of the "slippery slope" argument in support of that claim...
...NOTEBOOK 641 being, signifies "that which has existence," while being, signifies "an individual that has or has had an independent nature capable of sustaining and regulating its own metabolic pattern (in short, nonspecific being and independent being...
...182, pp...
...I say this because it is important to strike out against the view which maintains that new or heterodox views of morals ought not be considered or taught, because the masses are unintelligent...
...I think not...
...The Term `Human Being' and the Problem of Abortion," Names, September 1971, pp...
...That is, whether or not a person, group, or society—exposed to actual killing or the idea of sanctioned killing— universalizes and thereby extends this domain...
...John D. Dingell, U.S...
...For similar arguments, see: T. Goodrich, "The Morality of Killing," Philosophy, April 1969, p. 137...
...221-22...
...I continue to think it is enlightening to compare a fetus to an acorn, that it is self-contradictory to assert that every human fetus (being,) is a human being2, and that the lines drawn in the language reflect important distinctions...
...Is the line between permissible killing and nonpermissible killing more natural than the line between the unborn and the born...
...Milan Vuitch, SupremeCourt of the United States, October 1970, No...
...For example, if we crush an insect and believe this to be a permissible act, we do not conclude that it is permissible to kill all living things...
...Why, so to speak "pick on" the term human being...
...5Ibid., p. 26...
...Hence to say that a seed of an oak tree is an oak tree is to say (at least in part) that unborn progeny are born progeny...
...How does one hold the line and prevent the killing of the mentally retarded, the handicapped, the elderly, or members of any group who have not achieved, or have lost, their full potential as human beings...
...John-Stevas and others maintain that, since there is no qualitative difference between the embryo at the moment of conception and at the moment of quickening, the embryo must be considered a human being.' AS I HAVE SUGGESTED elsewhere, 2 this argument is fallacious...
...1-45...
...United States of America vs...
...Similarly, if we are taught to kill Nazis and the criteria for a Nazi and the circumstances of permissible killings are clearly spelled out, we do not kill all German nationals (although of the possible mistakes this is probably the most likely...
...The basic issue here is whether or not the idea of killing is contagious...
...Bart Heffernan, Amicus Curiae in Support of Appellant...
...I thought, and still think, that it makes about as much sense to say that a fetus is a human being as it does to say that an acorn is an oak tree...
...An explanation was also advanced as to why speakers rarely make mistakes when talking about acorns and oak trees, but err when talk ing about more exalted matters...
...Whether or not certain levels of language are perfectly determinate is not important...
...But the seed is a member of the class of unborn progeny...
...Consider the question of whether or not we can correctly say that a human fetus is a human being...
...The general form of the argument is that, since in the nature of things all change is discrete and continuous, lines or boundaries can not be found, held, or adequately drawn...
...John-Stevas, The Right to Life (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964), p. 32...
...Why is the line between a combatant and noncombatant in wartime (to choose just one example) easier to hold than the line between killing human fetuses and killing human beings...
...orange, milk from cheese, and acorns from oak trees...
...We do not mistakenly generalize and kill all Europeans...
...But if this is the case, why should the "slippery slope" be used in the abortion debate...
...2 "Abortion and the Argument from Innocence," Inquiry, Summer 1971, pp...
...5 Or, as a colleague has asked: once you draw new lines, once you say it is permissible to kill human fetuses (that is, to kill less than fully potential human beings), then how does one limit the killing to that of fetuses...
...The analogy runs as follows: If an acorn is destroyed has a tree been killed...
Vol. 19 • September 1972 • No. 4
