Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2026

Auricular Point Acupressure Therapy: A Safe and Effective Treatment for Postsurgical Abortion Recovery
Published on: February 3, 2026
Abortion and the argument from potential: what we owe to the ones who might exist
1University of Milan, Department of Philosophy, 20122 Milan, Italy. alberto.giubilini@unimi.it
Abstract:
I challenge the idea that the argument from potential (AFP) represents a valid moral objection to abortion. I consider the form of AFP that was defended by Hare, which holds that abortion is against the interests of the potential person who is prevented from existing. My reply is that AFP, though not unsound by itself, does not apply to the issue of abortion. The reason is that AFP only works in the cases of so-called same number and same people choices, but it falsely presupposes that abortion is such a kind of choice. This refutation of AFP implies that (1) abortion is not only morally permissible but sometimes even morally mandatory and (2) abortion is morally permissible even when the potential person's life is foreseen to be worth living.
Related Concept Videos
Ethical Dilemmas I
Let us explore some examples to understand the potentially complex moral decisions nurses face.
Take the case of caring for minors, particularly in areas related to reproductive...
Fundamental Attribution Error
Ethics and Bioethics
Requirements for Human Life
Oxygen
Atmospheric air is only about 20 percent oxygen, but that oxygen is a key component of the chemical reactions that keep the body alive, including the reactions that produce ATP. Brain cells are susceptible to a lack of oxygen because they require a...
Nondisjunction
Reproductive Cloning
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer
In SCNT, an egg cell is taken from an animal and its nucleus is removed, creating an enucleated egg. Then a somatic cell—any cell that is not a sex...

