TOWARDS A RESOLUTION OF THE CONFLICT OF THE ABORTION DEBATE: A PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH

Abstract

The fundamental conflict in the morality of abortion and the problems which have pitched the pro-choice and pro-life proponents against each other are issues bothering on the status of the foetus and how the conflict of rights between the mother and the foetus can be reconciled. The existing attempts to resolve these problems by some scholars seem abortive probably because these scholars usually focused on one side of the argument. This paper undertakes to conceptualize the principle of personal identity and the doctrine of double effect with the view of applying them towards the resolution of these two fundamental problems on the morality of abortion.