The Argument from Viability for the Immorality of Abortion

Abortion is one of the controversial issues in medical ethics. This operation has come across many for or against answers each of which has some arguments for its view. One for-argument says that because the fetus does not have a personality, i.e. personal characteristics, it is not considered as a person; rather it is merely a potential person. Thus destroying the fetus is morally right.  Stephan Schwarz is among those who have argued against abortion; he has directed attention to the difference between being a person and having personal functions. Thus considering functional capabilities, the fetus is a person. He holds that from the very moment of conception the fetus becomes a person with its moral right and position; it may not function as a person, though.    One of his arguments that the fetus is a person comes from viability (continuance of existence). In what follows, the authors have examined this argument. Due to the similarities between this argument and those of species essence and slippery slope -considered identical by some people- they have differentiated that argument from these two ones .