David Boonin has written the most thorough and detailed case for the moral permissibility of abortion yet published. Critically examining a wide range of arguments that attempt to prove that every human fetus has a right to life, he shows that each of these arguments fails on its own terms. He then explains how even if the fetus does have a right to life, abortion can still be shown to be morally permissible on the critique of abortion's own terms. Finally he considers several pro-life arguments that do not depend on claims that the fetus has a right to life and concludes that these too are ultimately unsuccessful. This major book will be especially helpful to those teaching applied ethics and bioethics in philosophy departments or professional schools of law and medicine. It will interest students of women studies and general readers for whom abortion remains a high-profile issue.

‘Boonin gives a persuasive interpretation and developments of Judith Jarvis Thompson’s good-samaritan argument. He dispatches with great authority Don Marquis’s future-like-ours argument. This original and carefully argued book will revitalize the abortion controversy.’

Bonnie Steinbock - State University of New York, Albany

‘I have never read a better examination of all the arguments that have been raised against abortion. Nor have I read a better series of counter arguments against each of these arguments.’

Rosemarie Tong - University of North Carolina, Charlotte