Francis J. Beckwith (2007) Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice. Cambridge: CUP. 296pp, £14.99, 978 0 521 69135 2
Beckwith is a professor of law and philosophy at Baylor University, and has written extensively on abortion issues previously. This volume brings together years of thinking and debating on this contentious issue. It is an invaluable resource for those who wish to ‘stand up’ for human life at all stages of development. The first third of the book examines moral reasoning, legal considerations, and political dimensions of the abortion debate. The second third of the book explores the science, the morality and the arguments involved in the debate about abortion. The final third of the book extends these considerations to recent developments in bioethics, including the contentious issues of cloning and stem cell research. The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding the ban on partial birth abortion and the controversy over stem cell research makes it clear that the issues of the sanctity of human life will continue to be at the forefront of American politics in the twenty-first century. Beckwith’s Defending Life confronts a wide variety of arguments made by prominent scholars who favour abortion rights, including Judith Thomson, David Boonin, Dean Stretton, Eileen McDonagh, Paul Simmons, and Stuart Rosenbaum.
It is often said that the anti-abortion position is fundamentally religious. Beckwith, however, provides a comprehensive philosophical defence of the position. Defending Life is one of the most comprehensive defences of the pro-life position on abortion published today. It is sophisticated, but also accessible. Beckwith responds forcefully and eruditely to pro-choice arguments found within law, science, philosophy, and politics, only to show them to be inferior to the pro-life position. Personally, I find his chapter covering abortion law as set forth by Roe v. Wade to be the most important chapter of the book, and readers of Political Studies Review might as well. Therein, he concisely explains Roe v. Wade, and thereafter critiques it from a reverse perspective. Without inflammatory rhetoric or religious appeals, Beckwith proffers a careful and respectful argument for why the pro-life view of human life is correct. Whether one agrees with his position or not, it cannot be denied that Beckwith offers an internally coherent and reasonably convincing case for the pro-life position.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.
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