AUTONOMY'S DOMINION: RONALD DWORKIN'S ARGUMENTS ON ABORTION

Abstract

Ronald Dworkin's arguments on abortion are still very ad rem to his rights thesis or liberal theory of law which hinges on the jurisprudential position that people should consider rights as trumps, such that the individual liberty protected by the right, trumps the various collective goals with which the right might be in conflict. For Dworkin, the individuals' right to personal autonomy protects their desire to have abortion within the first trimester of pregnancy. The problem that warrants this study is to ascertain the personhood of a foetus, as Dworkin denies that a foetus is a person, especially at its early developmental stage. This study's objective is to analyse Dworkin's arguments on abortion. Significantly, this study will be very important to legal and medical philosophers, legal and medical practitioners, clinical and forensic psychologists, medical physicists, and so on. This research work will help them to do their works better in their different fields. The study adopts the analytic method of philosophical research. Finally, this study submits that foetuses are viable persons from the moment of conception. The newly conceived foetus, the newborn child and the mature adult are all at different stages of development. All, therefore, deserve human dignity. More abortions