Maximizing Moral Virtue

[bennyboy]

It isn't fair to say that all anti-abortion people rely on 1) cuteness, or 2) emotional dispositions toward similarity. To assume that they do would be to ignore, for example, the arguments from potency and act. Since such arguments are ancient and are assumed by many people to be rational, anyone who claims to be able to state anti-abortion reasoning in fair terms would need to be aware of this.

I may need to look up "act and potency," so let me know if I'm getting it wrong. But whatever it is, I'd like to see how this argument is applied differentially to non-human developing mammals in utero, let alone to post-birth offspring.

If you're not vegetarian, then you must either believe or feel human exceptionalism, since you presumably would not tolerate the killing of humans for consumption, or the imposition of suffering in/by an industry with that purpose.

I propose the following reasons for the sense of human exceptionalism, and ask you to provide any that might be missing.
-egocentric bias (anything like me is more important than things unlike me)
-religious proclamations ("God created man in His image.")
-protective instinct ("Squeeee! It's cute, will die if necessary to defend it.")
-valuations of mental superiority: intellect and so on, along with the position that superior intellect makes something intrinsically more valuable.

I'd say egocentric bias in a non sequitur-- things are not intrinsically more value because they are like me.
Religious proclamation is irrelevant to a debate with someone outside your religion. Why should I care what you claim your God says?
Protective instinct is based on the previously-mentioned fallacy-- specifically, the use of "baby" terminology for something that isn't a baby.
Valuations of mental superiority cannot matter when a fetus has no mind at all-- certainly not more than any mammalian fetus.

What, exactly, is being lost in an abortion? There are many "human" things that do not need to preserved: corpses, clumps of hair, excrement. That they are "human" isn't itself enough to merit protection or concern.