When does a human being gain a moral right to life? An ethical and metaphysical study of abortion and embryonic stem cell research

The issue of the moral status of the human fetus is not a new one, yet it remains one of the most divisive issues among bioethicists and the general public. The issue has re-surfaced in the public sphere due to its latest incarnation: the morality of embryonic stem cell research. Although much has been written on the topic, I have yet to be completely convinced that any one position in the literature accords the human fetus a proper place in the moral sphere. It is my objective in this dissertation to defend a moderate position concerning when the human fetus gains moral status and a moral right to life. In this project, I supplement the arguments in the literature by combining ethical considerations with metaphysical ones, arguing that it is at about 20 to 25 weeks gestational age when the human fetus begins to exist in any morally or metaphysically relevant manner and thus becomes a being who can be identified with a future being whose life contains a standard set of human goods. Because of this, it is at this point that depriving a fetus of continued existence constitutes a harm against it and thus it is at this time that abortion becomes prima facie morally impermissible. I then move on to apply this view to the ethics of embryonic stem cell research, and I attempt to respond to the various arguments that condemn the practice. I argue that embryonic stem cell research is morally permissible because it has the potential to benefit many ailing individuals suffering from debilitating diseases and does not harm the embryos that are destroyed in the process, given that these embryos are nowhere near the mid-gestation point and so lack moral status. Moreover, I spend some time exploring what proper respect for an embryo ought to consist of, and I conclude that using leftover In Vitro Fertilization embryos for stem cell research does indeed illustrate proper respect for them