Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
Okay, but if we want to put it in moral terms, the conservative position on abortion has an overall negative effect on women's health, so it does appear in that sense to be a sexist position.
I know you like to argue that there needs to be demonstration of intent, which I don't agree with, but I would argue that purposefully ignoring the aspects that make it women's health issue when those aspects have been studied and are well known constitutes some form of intent.
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Sure, it does. There's a difference between the three cases. In one, you're taking an action that has multiple results X and Y because you want X and Y to happen. In the other, you're taking an action that has multiple results X and Y, and you don't want Y, and you knew Y might happen, but are ignoring Y because you think X is more important. In the last, you're taking an action that has multiple results X and Y, where you don't want Y but you also didn't foresee Y - it was just an accident.
This is best illustrated by a hypothetical. Last week, my neighbour's house caught fire. The fire spread to the houses next door, and several people died. My neighbour claims it was an accident. Those are the
results - my neighbour's actions had a negative effect. But how did we get here?
One possibility is that my neighbour wanted to cook dinner, and got distracted by something. The fire was a total accident.
Another possibility is that my neighbour wanted to collect insurance proceeds, and so set the house on fire on purpose by staging it to look like a cooking accident. They weren't
trying to burn down the adjacent houses, but that was a risk they either knew about and didn't care, or just weren't paying attention to.
A third possibility is that my neighbour is a psychopath. He hates people and wants them all to die. So he deliberately set fire to his house, knowing that it could spread and hoping that it would. He claims it was just a cooking accident, and set it up to look that way so that he won't be arrested and can go on murdering people in the future.
Those three possible scenarios have exactly the same results, but my neighbour's motivations and intentions are different in each. Those differences, almost anyone would agree, are completely relevant to making a moral judgment about my neighbour's actions in starting the fire.