THE ‘CONTEXT SENSITIVITY THESIS’ AND THE MORALITY OF ABORTION

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 1 | P a g e International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature Vol. 2, Issue 10, Oct 2015 IF- 2.255 ISSN: (2394-1642)

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THE ‘CONTEXT- SENSITIVITY THESIS’ AND THE MORALITY OF

ABORTION

Falana Kehinde

Assistant Lecturer, General Studies Unit,

School Of Sciences, Federal University Of Technology, Akure, Nigeria

Olalere Kunle Oluwafemi

Lecturer Ii

General Studies Department, The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The moral question of abortion creates different responses based on the dispositions of those actively involved in the discourse. Its continued practice either as approved by law in some climes or in deference to law is some countries where it has not been considered legally or acceptable in the light of social and religious considerations, raises questions on the autonomy of the moral agents concerned as to whether she reserves the right to her body and what she does with it. As a response to these enigma, we intend evaluate Mark Timmons’ Context Sensitivity thesis as an ideology that proposes a form of relativity in the consideration of abortion and the ethical issues therein.

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 2 | P a g e INTRODUCTION

Grounds for justifying abortion have overtime been put forward by different apologetics with

each of these groups advancing various theories and arguments for their claims. Prominent

amongst this collective are the feminists. Although there are evolving trends which breaks this

group into different orientations, the crux of their arguments resides in the notion that every

woman has an inalienable right and control over her body which can not be at any instance,

revoked. This right allows her the autonomy to decide without inhibitions, whatever she deems

fit for her.

Based on the aforementioned, we will attempt to scrutinize the claims of this group as regards

the woman‟s express control of her body with Timmons‟ thesis of “Context Sensitivity” which is

a version of Situational Ethics, as a means of determining the viability of the claims of the

feminists.

This paper will also examine as part of its task, the core of Timmons‟ proposition in order to

understand the background of the study.

ABORTION

Abortion has been severally defined by different people to suit the positions they intend to

support or put forward. For protagonists of the phenomenon, it is defined and described in

positive terms while those on the other side of the divide postulate definitions that are essentially

negative and demeaning in outlook. The idea is to show that abortion in most instances is seen in

the light of the values of the person engaged in the ruminations.

For instance Mc Cormick defines abortion solely as a clinical procedure which is often employed

as a „stop gap‟ in case fertility control measures fail. He sees abortion as “a supplement, abortion

would be considered as a secondary means of fertility control, a backstep to contraceptive failure

and as an alternative to contraception, abortion becomes a primary means of birth control (Mc

Cormick 1975:1).

His definition appears to simply articulate the notion that it is a method that can be employed in

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 3 | P a g e defined as the “expulsion of the product of conception in the early stages of gestation before it becomes viable”. This definitions stands slightly away from Mc Cormick‟s submission by stating

that abortion should only be carried out before the foetus begins to develop into the stage where

it is seen as a human person or being as the case may be. This view presents an attempt to merge

the opposing views on abortion by creating a middle-line between an acceptable abortion and the

one that is unacceptable.

Dasaolu like other pacifists, intend to create a vista through which abortion can be viewed as a

necessary evil in certain situations or contexts especially when it is employed for the purpose of

securing a woman‟s life. He intends to show that we cannot out rightly condemn the enigma

since it can also be used for therapeutic purposes as shown in clinical procedures.

The extreme view in deference to the above, is typified by a group of antagonists mainly

populated by faith based organizations who see it as unacceptable. This view is aptly described

by Dasaolu where he posits that

The conservative argument lies on the premise

that the foetus is a human being and that since it is

wrong to kill a human being, it is wrong to kill a

human foetus. The conservative position does not

see any difference between a foetus and an infant,

a boy or a child. (Dasaolu 2001:130)

On the strength of the aforementioned, we will begin to understand that any discourse on

abortion cannot be free from interjections, arguments, claims and counter-claims based on the

idea that the phenomenon is different things to different people depending on the purpose for

which it is being deplored or promoted. We will quickly examine some of the reasons for which

abortion is often suggested in clinical procedures whether for therapeutic purposes or hedonistic

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 4 | P a g e REASONS ADDUCED FOR ABORTION

Abortion ordinarily appears abhorrent to most people especially when they have not taken time

out to understand reasons that could lead a pregnant woman into wanting to terminate a foetus

before its full term. For most people it stands against reasoning to want to expunge pregnancy

without waiting for the foetus to develop to the last stage. However, on a second thought there

appears to be a number of reasons for which abortion can be desirable and these reasons will e

quickly discussed with dispatch in a bid to consider the basis on which the feminists situate their

position and support for abortion.

a. Socio-Economic Reasons

Lack of financial wherewithal to cater for oneself and an additional offspring is sometimes

put forward as a reason why some women chose abortion. In most instances when this

argument is championed, emphasis is always placed on the fact that if the foetus is left to

develop and consequently delivered, there is a high tendency that it may not survive due to

lack of needed finance to support his or her raising. That the baby may never survive the

stage of infancy and based on this assumption, it is rather plausible to spare the child the

horrendous experience of being disadvantaged from birth.

A woman‟s inability to provide for her offspring after its birth sounds like a genuine reason

to prescribe abortion, but a ready question that comes to mind is the viability of such n

argument when it is made a universal law as prescribed by Immanuel Kants‟ categorical

imperative. It is germane to ask if such an act can be considered as one performed out of a

sense of duty and if the answer is in the affirmative, can it be made an imperative?

b. Psychological Reasons

This position is based on the notion that a foetus can be expunged if the source of the

pregnancy is can be traced to a traumatic event which the woman would want to totally erase

from her memory. Standard cases of this nature involves pregnancies resulting from rape,

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 5 | P a g e right and discretion towards sexual relationships. This reason is primarily seen as genuine

because it presupposes the fact that the pregnancy was not desirable in the first instance since

it was without her consent.

c. Medical Reasons

This appears to make the most genuine and acceptable claim for the champions of abortion

because of the perspective it brings into the fray. Abortions based on medical advice cannot

be said to stand against any acceptable standard unless we want to totally disregard the

primacy of securing the pregnant woman‟s life on which the existence of the foetus

irrevocably depends. When abortion is induced for therapeutic reasons, there is rarely any

other acceptable position than that which emphasizes the need to secure the life of the

mother by all means possible.

Having examined some of the reasons put forward for inducing abortion at any stage of

pregnancy, it is expedient to move into the consideration of the arguments of the feminists in

support of abortion especially the idea that the woman holds an exclusive right to do with her

body as she likes.

FEMINISM AND ABORTION

Feminism has grown to be known as a conscious movement that revels in the affirmation of

the right of the womenfolk in any area of human existence. In abroad sense, a feminist can

be described as a person who constantly strives to amplify the necessities of affording the

women the needed and appropriate opportunities to thrive without inhibitions in all spheres

of human endeavours. The positions of different feminist trends are aptly captured thus

Feminists have located women‟s relegation

within patriarchal culture and its control of

women. While Socialist feminists argue that

class and capitalism are the basis of women

oppression, radical feminists argue that male

domination is the basis of women‟s

oppression. Radical feminists define patriarchy

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 6 | P a g e possesses superior power and economic privilege

(Lanre-Abass 2012:150-1).

From the foregoing, it is apparent that the crux of feminism is the affirmation of the equality

of the womenfolk with their male counterparts. This is however just the springboard on

which this ideological leaning projects its position. It has gone further to intervene in many

areas of human endeavours with the aim of eradicating any form of imbalance in the society

which had hitherto worked against the womenfolk, prominent amongst these key areas is the

control over her body which is of course, intrinsically linked with the question on abortion.

Feminists posit as regards abortion, that the right of the woman to control her body is what

basically determines how she would treat her pregnancy no matter the stage of fetal growth.

Jarvis Thomson, a famous feminist avers that

There are really two people involved, one

whose life is threatened, and one who

threatens it. Both are innocent, the one who

is threatened is not threatened because of

any fault. For this reason, we bystanders

cannot intervene, but the threatened can.

(Dasaolu 2001:153)

It is clear that for the feminist, the woman has a right at any point in time to terminate her

pregnancy especially when it threatens her existence. They are more concerned with securing

the life of the woman who is considered as the host who reserves the exclusive right to evict

any overbearing guest, in this case the feotus. A position that is most amplified suggests that

abortion is desirable in as much as the woman deems it fit by her standards to expunge her

pregnancy. It gives a „blank cheque‟ so to speak to the woman by totally disregarding any

notion of moral responsibility based on the viability of the feotus in the womb as regards its

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 7 | P a g e Thomson (1975:51) however agrees that abortion conducted on the basis of convenience and

not necessity, is not morally permissible because it will engender gross abuse. She argued

that it is morally wrong for a woman to request abortion “if she is in her seventh month just

to avoid the nuisance of postponing a trip abroad”. This position appears to stand in contrast

to the claim that the mother reserves the right to do with her body whatever she deems fit

since it places a caveat on the exclusive right in certain situations. This shows that even

amongst the feminists there exists a demarcation between propose absolute discretion and

those who hold a moderate view by prescribing a measure of control as regards how and

when the mother should request or induce abortion whenever the need arises.

From the foregoing, we are faced with the fact that even those who clamour for the total

liberation of the womenfolk do not promote or guarantee that abortion is to be left unbridled

in all instances. On the strength of this, we will go on to examine Mark Timmons‟ thesis of

context sensitivity and the perspective from which it would consider the adoption of abortion

by any woman.

CONTEXT SENSITIVITY THESIS AND ABORTION

The context sensitivity thesis on the surface appears similar to moral relativism but Timmons

points out that “the important point in this thesis is that it is not equivalent to moral

relativism, nor does it imply relativism” (Timmons 2002:41). Then we are faced with the

task of understanding what this thesis represents without asking further assumptions about its

nature and content. By proposing context sensitivity, Timmons intends to show that our

ethical standards or moral actions and inactions are often determined by “non-moral facts

that holds in the context in question-facts concerning agents and their circumstances”

(Timmons 2002:43). By this, he meant that our decisions to act in certain moral dilemma are

often determined by our abilities to respond to such a situation. This illustration is made

more lucid in these words

Suppose you are an expert swimmer and one

day While walking along a deserted beach,

you see a young child flailing away in the

water some twenty yards from

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 8 | P a g e You surely have a moral obligation to rescue

the child But suppose it is I who am walking

on the same beach- someone who cannot

swim. Since I would certainly drown If I

tried to rescue the child. (Timmons 2002:41)

What Timmons invites us to consider here is the fact that in such a scenario as the one

painted above where there are two moral agents involved, their moral responsibility is

dependent on factors or situations that are not restricted by moral obligations. Put in a better

way, that our discretion to perform some moral acts can be restricted by the context where

these incidents happen or the situation we find ourselves in such instances. For example, a

non-swimmer cannot possibly save a drowning boy since he would drown himself. Instead

he can either look on or call for help if it is readily available. This, for Timmons, is the

backbone of the thesis since it shows that “it is this fact about our situations that helps

explain why you have an obligation to perform a certain specific action while I do not. So

sometimes differences in facts about agents can affect what it is morally right or wrong to do

in a particular context” (Timmons 2002:42).

Based on this thesis, Timmons invites us to consider the offerings of his argument and accept

that it is a moral theory which appears sensible because it has often been shown that certain

situations constrains us as moral agents from performing actions that are considered to be

our moral obligations. On this basis, Timmons proposes his moral principle thus

The point I am making is often explained

by pointing Out that moral norms and

principles have different Implications

depending on differences in situations or

context. The following is plausible moral

principle: one ought to help those who

are in need of help when one is in a position to do so and can

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 9 | P a g e Timmons‟ thesis emphasizes that moral actions should be considered expedient or otherwise

only when they are performed with no harm or dangerous consequences to the moral agent in

question. Having ascertained the central point of the thesis, we would now go further by

applying same to the question of abortion and the feminist position with the aim of seeing if

abortion is morally acceptable in the light of context sensitivity.

The key question that comes to mind is the level of risk or inconveniences involved in that is

deemed permissible before a moral agent can request for abortion. Put differently, how do we

determine the stage at which it is expedient for the pregnant woman who is the moral agent to

either through a particular action or inaction resort to abortion? Thomson (1975) in response to

this germane question, proposed that if abortion is carried out for therapeutic purposes and not

for any other reasons, then we can actually accept it as morally permissible. She posits that when

it becomes a threat to the existence of the pregnant woman it is infact a moral duty that is

expedient since the abortion is a means of preserving her life based on the context or situation

she found herself.

Another perspective suggests that since Timmons‟ thesis proposes that all moral judgments

should be based on contextual considerations, we can project an argument based on resilience

level of the moral agent as regards the level of risks she is able and willing to go through in the

preservation of the pregnancy. If her resilience is overstretched she is justified to seek a way out

of her despair even if abortion is the most extreme solution. The point being made here is that

abortion is plausible based on the notion that since the mother reserves the right to the control of

her body then she has no moral obligation to keep a pregnancy that is on the verge of terminating

her life especially when are level of resilience in terms of her ability to continue to keep a

pregnancy which affects her health through the period of gestation to the point of birth. From the

analysis so far, it is correct to state that the context sensitivity thesis and the moral principle it

promotes supports abortion, but not in all instances.

In conclusion, it is imperative to underscore the fact that the argument for abortion is morally

acceptable for particular reasons especially when considered in the light of mark Timmons‟

version of situational ethics aptly termed the “context sensitivity thesis”. It however becomes

unacceptable when the context or situation that warrants the clamour for abortion does not

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International Research Journal of Humanities, Language and Literature ISSN: (2394-1642) 10 | P a g e BOOKS CITED

ChandraseKhar, S. (1974). Abortion in a Crowded World London: George Allen and Union.

Dasolu, J. (2001). Abortion in Fundamental Theories and Issues in Ethics (Ed) Oduwole E and

Olaolu M. Ibadan: Ben-El books.

Lanre-Abass B. A. Nigerian Women, HIV/AIDS and the Quest for Social Justice, in Ibadan

Journal of Humanistic Studies (Vol3. 21and22)(Ed)Manukoro M.M

Mc Cormick, E. P (1975). Attitudes Towards Abortion, London; D. C. Health and Company.

Thomas, J. J. (1975). A Defence of Abortion in Philosophy and Public Affairs, No 1

Timmons, M. (2002). Moral Theory: An Introduction New York: Rowman and Littlefield

Publishers.