Boonin: A Defense of Abortion

Michael P. mentions David Boonin's book, A Defense of Abortion, in a recent post.  I read it (or some of it) three or four years ago.  MOJ reader, Ryan Anderson, reminded me of Boonin's raw honesty about what he was advocating.  In the preface to the book, Boonin writes:

“The other reason that this book was difficult to write is more personal. On the desk in my office where most of this book was written and revised, there are several pictures of my son, Eli. In one, he is gleefully dancing on the sand along the Gulf of Mexico, the cool ocean breeze wreaking havoc with his wispy hair. In a second, he is tentatively seated in the grass in his grandparents’ backyard, still working to master the feat of sitting up on his own. In a third, he is only a few weeks old, clinging firmly to the arms that are holding him and still wearing the tiny hat for preserving body heat that he wore home from the hospital. Through all of the remarkable changes that these pictures preserve, he remains unmistakably the same little boy.

“In the top drawer of my desk, I keep another picture of Eli. This

picture was taken on September 7, 1993, 24 weeks before he was born.

The sonogram image is murky, but it reveals clearly enough a small

head tilted back slightly, and an arm raised up and bent, with the hand

pointing back toward the face and the thumb extended out toward the

mouth. There is no doubt in my mind that this picture, too, shows the

same little boy at a very early stage in his physical development. And

there is no question that the position I defend in this book entails that it

would have been morally permissible to end his life at this point.”

(emphasis added)

I leave to the readers of his book the task of judging the reasonableness of the arguments he develops in favor of abortion.