Customer Reviews

Abortion and the Ways We Value Human Life

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Jeffrey Reiman, best known for his argument against the death penalty, teaches at American University, where I am currently a senior. This semester, I had to buy the book for a class I had with him. Before reading his book, we read a number of other essays important in the philosophical approach to the abortion issue. This book provides an excellent introduction to the philosophical questions, and makes a remarkable argument - that you can understand the prevailing public opinion on abortion and other issues by understanding how human life is valued. Reiman gives a history of the issue, and responds to many of the most prominent authors. He is penetrating, although having heard his arguments orally, I may be slightly biased in his favor. He is an unabashed liberal (look at the titles of some of his other works), and his argument might permit some disturbing consequences beyond abortion. Also, I firmly agree with the preceding author: the book costs far too much. Still, it's worth a read.

Reiman's book on abortion is original and important. It is also even-handed. As with his other works, many of which ponder matters of life and death, Reiman shines a bright, clear light on issues that leave most of us stumped. The book is brief but compelling. It is brief because Reiman knows the relevant philosophical literature inside and out and thus can guide us through the main points with authority; it is compelling because Reiman makes us examine the value of human life in a systematic way, something we might only do under compulsion (since it is an unsettling business). The book is also beautifully written, another Reiman trademark.

This book, which pretends to have a liberal answer to the abortion debate, is just awful. His arguement is basicly this; we value humans in different ways at different points of their lives, these seems to roughly correspond to how rational to human is. Since the fetus lacks rationality, it isn't an entity which has a right to life. While supporters of this arguement may claim this is a misrepresenting it, it really isn't. If Reiman has taken his head out of the philosophical stratosphere and examined the problem, he may have come up with a better arguement. As it is now, it simply represents the way some moral philosophy no longer talks about the real world. Pass this one up. Besides, at this price for the skimpy book (less than 100p), you'd do better using it for nearly anything else.