Abortion, euthanasia, and care of defective newborns

Abstract

Growing use of abortion to prevent births of infants with unfavorable prenatal diagnoses raises ethical questions about active euthanasia for newborn infants with similar impairments. Two opposing ethical arguments are those of Paul Ramsey, who equates genetically indicated abortion with infanticide disapprovingly, and of Joseph Fletcher, who equates the morality of abortion with selective euthanasia approvingly. Though radically different, these arguments treat the ethical aspects of the prenatal and postnatal situations as essentially similar. There are, however, different moral features between the two situations, in that the postnatal situation is characterized by the independent physical existence of the infant, the possibility of treatment, and the formation of parental loyality to the infant. Thus, a decision for abortion after prenatal diagnosis does not necessarily commit parents to euthanasia in the management of a seriously damaged infant.