A consequentialist or utilitarian is likely to approach the abortion question in a very different way, by trying to weigh up suffering. Does the embr… - Richard Dawkins

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A consequentialist or utilitarian is likely to approach the abortion question in a very different way, by trying to weigh up suffering. Does the embryo suffer? (Presumably not if it is aborted before it has a nervous system; and even if it is old enough to have a nervous system it surely suffers less than, say, an adult cow in a slaughterhouse.) Does the pregnant woman, or her family, suffer if she does not have an abortion? Very possibly so; and, in any case, given that the embryo lacks a nervous system, shouldn't the mother's well-developed nervous system have the choice?

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About Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is known for his advocacy of atheism.

Biography information from Wikiquote

Also Known As

Birth Name: Clinton Richard Dawkins
Alternative Names: C. Dawkins C. Richard Dawkins Clinton Dawkins CR Dawkins R. Dawkins
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Additional quotes by Richard Dawkins

We are not arrogant, not hubristic, to celebrate the sheer bulk and detail of what we know through science. We are simply telling the honest and irrefutable truth. Also honest is the frank admission of how much we don’t yet know – how much more work remains to be done. That is the very antithesis of hubristic arrogance. Science combines a massive contribution, in volume and detail, of what we do know with humility in proclaiming what we don’t. Religion, by embarrassing contrast, has contributed literally zero to what we know, combined with huge hubristic confidence in the alleged facts it has simply made up.

همه‌چیز را بسنج؛ همواره باورهای خود را با واقعیات باز آزما، و آماده‌باش تا حتی عزیزترین باورهایت را هم که با واقعیت نمی‌خوانند کنار نهی. عقاید خود را مستقلاً و بر مبنای خرد و تجربه‌ی خود برگزین؛ نگذار دیگران تو را به پیروی کورکورانه بکشانند.

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There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else (parents in the case of children, God in the case of adults) has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point. [...] The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it. And we can make it very wonderful indeed.

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