title: Fetal status: sources and implications.
abstract: This essay considers the ways in which the various contexts--abortion, prenatal diagnosis, fetal research, and the use of fetuses in transplantation--shape the American debate on the moral standing of the fetus. This discussion gives rise to several philosophical debates on the status of the preimplantation embryo, particularly the debate over when the preimplantation embryo becomes individuated. How that question is resolved has critical ethical and policy implications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Humanities and Arts, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA 01609, USA.
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Shannon
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced; D033421:Beginning of Human Life; D033041:Embryo Research; D028663:Ethical Theory; D005260:Female; D016332:Fetal Tissue Transplantation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005333:Fetus; D006801:Humans; D019369:Life; D028681:Moral Obligations; D028723:Personhood; D011247:Pregnancy; D037841:Pregnant People; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D026712:Value of Life