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Utilitarianism & Shopenhauer On Abortion

PHI 1030
Nancy L. Brown, Ph. D.
April 14, 2008

Abortion
Jane is a twenty year-old unmarried college student that found herself unexpectedly pregnant.   While considering her options, she visits Arthur and John. Arthur is a well known philosopher specializing in the Schopenhauer philosophy. John on the other hand is a well known Utilitarian author.   While Jane spends a couple days visiting these two philosophers, I went with her to document her journey.
Jane first went to visit John, the Utilitarian author.   After explaining that she was pregnant and considering the option of abortion, (we are going to assume in this fictional situation that abortion is legal) John started explaining the philosophy to her. The first thing he told Jane was that as a Utilitarian, she should only be concerned with pleasure and with pain. She would need to weigh her options based on the goal of the Utilitarian’s, greatest happiness for the greatest number associated with either having the abortion or not having the abortion.   He said “something is only right when it results in the greatest happiness for greatest number of people.”   He went on further to explain that by the wanting the greatest happiness, she must consider the pleasures associated with the senses such as wealth, skill, friendship, good name, good will, relief, imagination and memory.
He told Jane that if she didn’t have the abortion she might face a lot of unhappiness while raising the child.   In regards to the sense of wealth, he asked if she was ready to be a mother financially. She expressed to him that she was in no financial situation to support a child. He told her that she would find pleasure in the money she would save if she had the abortion. He reminded her that raising a child is very expensive with doctor visits, diapers, food and clothes etc. He told her that she could potentially lose friendships too if she had the baby. He explained that since she was only twenty years old, most of her friends...