{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,23]],"date-time":"2025-10-23T11:06:16Z","timestamp":1761217576759,"version":"3.44.0"},"reference-count":9,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["J Med Ethics"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2012,9,10]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2013,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>In his classic paper, \u2018Why abortion is immoral\u2019, Don Marquis argues that what makes killing an adult seriously immoral is that it deprives the victim of the valuable future he\/she would have otherwise had. Moreover, Marquis contends, because abortion deprives a fetus of the very same thing, aborting a fetus is just as seriously wrong as killing an adult. Marquis\u2019 argument has received a great deal of critical attention in the two decades since its publication. Nonetheless, there is a potential challenge to it that seems to have gone unnoticed. A significant percentage of fetuses are lost to spontaneous abortion. Once we bring this fact to our attention, it becomes less clear whether Marquis can use his account of the wrongness of killing to show that abortion is the moral equivalent of murder. In this paper, I explore the relevance of the rate of spontaneous abortion to Marquis\u2019 classic anti-abortion argument. I introduce a case I call Unexpected Death in which someone is about to commit murder, but, just as the would-be murderer is about to strike, his would-be victim dies unexpectedly. I then ask: what does Marquis\u2019 account of killing imply about the moral status of what the would-be murderer was about to do? I consider four responses Marquis could give to this question, and I examine what implications these responses have for Marquis\u2019 strategy of using his account of the wrongness of killing an adult to show that abortion is in the same moral category.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1136\/medethics-2012-100604","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2012,10,4]],"date-time":"2012-10-04T21:54:34Z","timestamp":1349387674000},"page":"89-93","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Spontaneous abortion and unexpected death: a critical discussion of Marquis on abortion"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"39","author":[{"given":"Mary Clayton","family":"Coleman","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"239","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2012,10,4]]},"reference":[{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"183","DOI":"10.2307\/2026961","article-title":"Why abortion is immoral","volume":"4","author":"Marquis","year":"1989","journal-title":"J Philos"},{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"McMahan J . The ethics of killing: problems at the margins of life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003:270\u20131.","DOI":"10.1093\/0195079981.001.0001"},{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.3","first-page":"335","article-title":"Abortion and the margins of personhood","volume":"39","author":"Little","year":"2008","journal-title":"Rutgers Law J"},{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"55","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1748-720X.2006.00008.x","article-title":"Moral status, human identity, and early embryos: a critique of the president's approach","volume":"34","author":"DeGrazia","year":"2006","journal-title":"J Law Med Ethics"},{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.1136\/jme.2004.007633","article-title":"Savulescu's objections to the future of value argument","volume":"2","author":"Marquis","year":"2005","journal-title":"J Med Ethics"},{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.6","unstructured":"March CM . Recurrent abortion. In: Mishell DR Davajan V , eds. Infertility, contraception, and reproductive endocrinology. Oradell, NJ: Medical Economics, 1986:539\u201357."},{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJM199906103402304"},{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.8","unstructured":"Pazol K Zane SB Parker WY . Abortion surveillance\u2014United States 2008. Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Center for Disease Control. http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/preview\/mmwrhtml\/ss6015a1.htm (accessed 30 Jun 2012)."},{"key":"2025092413280716000_39.2.89.9","unstructured":"Simpson JL Elias S . Genetics in obstetrics and gynecology. Philadelphia: Elsevier, 2003:101\u20132."}],"container-title":["Journal of Medical Ethics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/syndication.highwire.org\/content\/doi\/10.1136\/medethics-2012-100604","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,24]],"date-time":"2025-09-24T20:28:12Z","timestamp":1758745692000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/lookup\/doi\/10.1136\/medethics-2012-100604"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2012,10,4]]},"references-count":9,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,1,17]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2013,2]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1136\/medethics-2012-100604"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/medethics-2012-100604","relation":{},"ISSN":["0306-6800","1473-4257"],"issn-type":[{"type":"print","value":"0306-6800"},{"type":"electronic","value":"1473-4257"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2012,10,4]]}}}