儒家論墮胎與母胎關係

Confucianism on Abortion and the Maternal-Fetal Relation

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

西方倫理學界長期爭訟的墮胎問題的三個主要不同觀點，即所謂支持生命之保守主義、支持選擇之自由主義，與支持早期墮胎但反對晚期墮胎之折中主義。雖然三者似是各不相容的論點，但實有一共同的基本觀念，即三者同樣以母胎雙方乃是各自獨立的權利主體。本文批判此一假設並不切合母胎的真實情況。本文採用母胎乃一種非一非二之內在關係，不能以權利分析的方法來解決雙方之衝突。而孕母既是一道德行動者，此一關係當納入道德社群之內作準確的說明，方能得出較切合我們道德經驗的結論。本文通過儒家之家庭倫理關係說明此一內在關係的特色，即以相互之義務為主，見出作為道德行動者之孕母，對胎兒實有一不可逃的保護愛護之義務，不能以個人意願或身體權利進行墮胎。本文進而依儒家之取向，說明在不同情況下而懷孕，孕母所具有的墮胎理據和合理的解決方式。

Abortion is a perennial problem in the West. This essay shows that although the three major Western approaches to this issue – pro-life conservativism, pro-choice liberalism and the third way view that supports early but disallows late abortions – sound quite incompatible with each other, they nevertheless share a fundamental idea. They take the maternal-fetal relation as a relation between two unrelated right-holders, the pregnant woman and the fetus. This assumption can be criticized as not appropriate to the reality of the maternal-fetal relation. In this essay, I adapt the not-one-and-not-two relationship model of the pregnant woman and the fetus proposed by others, and take their proper relationship as an internal relationship. I argue that we cannot solve the conflict in abortion by the claim of rights of the two parties. Furthermore, as the pregnant woman is a moral agent, this relation should be considered within the conception of a moral community to arrive at a conclusion that reflects our moral experience.

I employ the Confucian conception of a family ethical relation to analyze and explain this internal relationship and its characteristics. The most important feature is that within such an intimate family relationship, the obligation of members to each other is primordial. In other words, the pregnant woman as a moral agent has the inescapable obligation to protect the fetus. She cannot claim a right to abortion by autonomy or the right to bodily integrity. Then I go further to explain how this Confucian conception of family relationships could give the proper reasons and solutions for various types of pregnancy to determine whether it is morally acceptable for abortion in such cases.

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