Book reviews -- Life's Dominion: An argument about abortion, euthanasia, and individual freedom by Ronald Dworkin

Abstract

In his view, people who describe the fetus as a person and equate abortion with murder cannot really mean what they say (even if they act as if they do in trying to intimidate physicians and their patients). [...]he argues that the abortion controversy is not about the "derivative" rights individuals have as persons, but is really about different views of the intrinsic value of human life -- the "detached" objection to abortion on the grounds that it undermines the sacredness or sanctity of all human life.