En rätt till liv eller död? : en argumentationsanalys av den mediala debatten om sena aborter ur ett etiskt perspektiv

Sammanfattning: This paper examines the late-term abortion debate that occurred in Sweden at the end of summer 2017. Different ethical theories will be used to go beyond the dis- cussion of rights and to see the opposing arguments regarding late term abortion more clearly. The ethical theories will also acknowledge the professions and indi- vidual viewpoints of those involved in the debate and analyse how these attributes relate to each other. This paper will first examine the arguments in the debate about late term abortion using Toulmin’s argument model with material from de- bate and opinion articles from daily newspapers and industry- specific publica- tions from 2017. Further analysis will show how the arguments and individual viewpoints can be interpreted according to utilitarianism, virtue ethics and deonto- logical ethics. Those who argue from a utilitarian position consider the conse- quences of lowering the abortion limit to below week 22 and how this could affect women’s rights to abortion. According to the perspective of virtue ethics, people with the same profession and individual viewpoint, like doctors, may argue against each other depending on their personal morals. In deontological ethics, an action should be approved by others in order to be considered morally right. In this debate, it is shown that people with the same viewpoints argue similarly, but may be on opposite sides.