This blog’s Matthew Flannagan has had his paper “Abortion as Self Defence” accepted for the 66th Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society (“ETS”) in San Diego, USA, from 19-21 November 2014. The abstract for Matt’s paper is as follows:

Abstract
Eileen McDonagh has proposed an ingenious argument for abortion rights; she concedes, for the sake of argument, that a fetus is a human being but argues that a fetus’ presence inside the womb of a woman who does not consent to pregnancy constitutes unjust aggression. Consequently, the woman has a right to expel and kill the fetus in self-defence.

In this paper I will sketch a critique of this line of argument suggested decades ago by Alan Donagan. Donagan argues that, in cases where a woman has not been raped, the woman is has acquired parental obligations to the fetus. Parental obligations are acquired through the act of begetting. If  a person brings a child into existence through voluntary sexual intercourse then he or she has a duty to provide the necessities of life for that child. The fetus is, therefore, not an unjust aggressor.

I will defend this argument against two influential objections. First, the objection that a woman who does not consent to getting pregnant cannot have parental obligations to her offspring. Second, the objection that, even if  a woman does have parental obligations to her offspring, these obligations do not include a duty to provide bodily life support. I will argue that both objections fail.

This year’s Annual Meeting theme is “Ecclesiology”. Plenary speakers for this year’s meeting are  Gregg R. Allison (Professor of Christian Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), Joseph H. Hellerman (Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University) and Miroslav Volf (Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology, Founding Director of Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Yale Divinity School).

(Matt has also had a paper accepted for the Evangelical Philosophical Society’s Annual Meeting, which is also in San Diego around the same time.)

As with previous years, we will need to fundraise to raise the $2,500 NZD shortfall in our budget needed to get him there. Family life on one modest, full-time income with a special needs child, who is unable to go to school, makes it very hard. Almost all of Matt’s philosophical and theological work on this blog is the result of his unpaid commitment to the field. Donations, no matter how modest, are greatly appreciated.

Tags:   Abortion · ETS · Evangelical Theological Society · Feticide · San Diego3 Comments