In Paul Ramsey’s book entitled “The Essential Paul Ramsey,” several of Ramsey’s written essays featuring his view and take on several ethical, political, and religious scenarios were collected and edited together to make a single book. The twelfth chapter of this book outlined some of Ramsey’s ideas, and some essential reference points that Ramsey thought were relevant when deciding about abortion. Ramsey brought in both political ideas as well as scientific facts to help persuade and solidify his ideas.
He mentioned towards the beginning of the essay that “every identifiably religious belief should be excluded from any earing at all upon public policy” as stated on page 151. This statement should bare the idea that Ramsey would leave all religious views out of this essay; however, since what Ramsey is stating is not public policy, he is not required to stand by this statement in the rest of the essay. Though he doesn’t explicitly bring religion into his argument, there is some references towards it throughout the paper.
When a fetus gains moral status, or when the fetus becomes a person, is an unclear point that has been greatly argued over and what many people base their opinion of abortion on. Ramsey establishes four points in the process of pregnancy that could be considered for when “life” begins and when that life can claim protection. He identifies the origin of the genotype, implantation, segmentation, and development in the first 4-8 weeks as his four important stages.
Ramsey himself seems to favour the origin of the genotype as his main belief, but he does identify ideas for both segmentation and implantation. Ramsey brings up both points for and against each of his four stages throughout the paper. His claims concerning implantation start with the science behind the process, but stop ith reference to thoughts on the morning after pill. In his discussion on implantation and further development, Ramsey describes the fetus in a way that seemed almost critical of the fetus and goes against other direct statements from other papers.
Ramsey directly refers to the fetus as a parasite on page 160 and describes it as acting aggressively towards the mother on page 162. These allegations may only be Ramsey making a literal analogy on the nature of the fetus, but the direct use of these terms make it hard to find Ramsey’s true feelings on the matter. For segmentation, Ramsey brings up the fact that the ygote has the possibility of splitting into two separate humans, which could indicate that there is no incorporation of a “soul” that would give the fetus life until it has had the chance to form identical twins.
However, Ramsey mentions that the chances of twinning fall well below that of normal development, and that even if there was twinning, there is nothing new being formed. “His subsequent development cannot be described as his becoming someone he now is not. It can only be described as a process of achieving, a process of becoming the one he already has. ” (pg. 57) Ramsey’s main claim draws upon the ideas of genetics, that every human is unique in their genomic make up (excluding the cases of identical twins).
Based off this evidence, Ramsey claims that due to this unique genome, an individual person, and therefore life, starts at conception. Ramsey’s claim that life begins at conception allows the idea that the fetus deserves the same rights and status at any other living person. This does not allow for preference of the mother over the fetus, but it also does not allow for the fetus to be favoured over the mother. However, nowhere in this paper was he mother’s rights explicitly stated into this discussion. The mother was only brought in when Ramsey mentioned implantation and further development.
His implication of the fetus as an aggressor towards the mother may leave room for the interpretation that the mother would have more rights than the fetus due to the parasitic relationship. However, more than likely this is not what Ramsey was implying. Since there is no explicit mention of the mother’s rights in regards to the pregnancy any opinions that can be drawn from this paper would be more than likely just assumptions. This ould have meant that Ramsey felt no pressing need to state the mother’s rights or any situation that may cause for exception.
The paper was mostly if not entirely focused on the fetus and the ambiguity of when the concept of life first comes into play. It might also be assumed that where the fetus’ rights may be hazy, the rights of the mother may be more defined by common knowledge and morality and how they play off an individual’s decision on the moral status of a fetus. Throughout the paper Ramsey is fairly decent about stating scientific facts that may support several of his points both for he stage that he deems the most important and others that he mentions.
This can be very good for a reader to help distinguish their own reasonable opinion based off the paper. Though Ramsey did express his assessment on when he believes that life begins, he wasn’t extremely aggressive with his opinion. He included other possibilities and facts for each, as well as why he thought his opinion fit and others did not. However, his less aggressive stance leave some lose ends in his conclusions that will either remain unanswered or be interpreted by outside sources.
This open-endedness could allow readers to insert their wn opinions to bounce off of Ramsey’s opinions and make it their own, or it could leave people to dislike him for misconstrued words or words that were put in his mouth all together. Using hard scientific data in his paper definitely helped Ramsey to solidify points that may not be easily answered by philosophy. However, Ramsey falls victim to a mistake that many opinionated people fall victim to throughout the course of history. All through history both common man and scientists have accepted data that they like and that supports their opinion and cast aside those that oppose it.
This is such the case n the classic example of the concept of evolution. Ramsey was able to utilized facts that help support his argument, such as mentioning the uniqueness of the human genome upon fertilization of the embryo, but fails to mention any that oppose it such as he did for the other three. This could, however, be due to the time period and data that might not have been presented at the time. Differing time periods may cause some confusion in many people as it can be hard to think of a time where the knowledge and tools that are prevalent today may not have existed.
One fairly easily identifiable instance of this in the paper as Ramsey’s mention of “the morning after pill now being experimentally developed” on page 156. Today, a great deal more is known about emergency contraceptives than was during Ramsey’s time. Discrepancies such as these, which are of no fault of Ramsey, are what can make an essay such as this a little more difficult to properly interpret. When constructing an opinion it is important not to just use personal beliefs and experiences, but facts on the matter as well. Ramsey is very good about relatively balancing both of these concepts in this essay about reference points for abortion.
His idea that life begins at conception can be supported by scientific data that he mentions. He also discusses other points that could also be argued for the beginning of “life” and shows similar treatment by supporting with other scientific data and what could be considered public opinion. He is able to single out his preference by giving reasons the other stages may not work, but is not forceful in his standing, which allows room for interpretation and differing opinions. As people form their own views and standings it is important allow for change and know that not everyone will share a single belief.
