A woman who willingly becomes pregnant as in the case of a married woman may be thought of as a person who has voluntarily contracted an obligation with her spouse to see through the birth and preserve the fetus. What happens when the woman was raped? The actions of another individual by force would not create consent for the pregnancy and hence the obligation to preserve life cannot be read into it. (Beauchamp; Walters, 2003)
If destroying the fetus is found to be right in saving the mother's life, it is also assumed that the mothers life somehow is paramount than that of the child in the womb. There cannot be exceptions for situations for one set of events merely because the people or religious percepts believe it to be right.
Q3. Some people argue that a fetus is a human being because it has the unique DNA of a human being. Does this mean that no one knew what a human being actually was until DNA was discovered?
The cat is a cat because the DNA of a cat created it. A cat for example cannot become anything else. DNA is not unique to humans, and it appears to be the molecular building block of all creatures of the animal kind. DNA may be an explanation for...
The cat's qualities that are exhibited by all cats may be resulting from the DNA -- but we define cats based on not the DNA chain but its general features which we are aware of. While DNA analysis may tell us why
Cleopatra's nose was long, it cannot define Cleopatra. (Gentry; Durand, 2008)
Going by the same
argument, it is possible that cats have unique DNA and therefore animal rights activists may argue that the whole world must become
vegetarian because every goat is unique and no one has to have any business putting sheep to slaughter. What we denied to the
animals but thrust on ourselves -- the right to life musty be made mandatory to all living beings whose DNA is discovered because then human kind is alone not unique. So the question of who is a human is a philosophical question that was attempted to be solved from the time of the caveman. Probably Aristotle was the first to say that
