I. Ordering the argument -- What should abortion argument be about? -- Gestation as Good Samaritanism -- Abortion as justified homicide -- Analogical arguments and sex equality -- II. The threshold of personhood -- Personhood thresholds, arbitrariness, and 'punctualism' -- Dualism, substantial identity, and the precautionary principle -- Gradualism and human embodiment -- Human equality and the significance of birth -- III. Principle and pragmatism -- Regulating abortion -- Selective abortion: sex and disability -- Matters of conscience.

"Does the morality of abortion depend on the moral status of the human fetus? Must the law of abortion presume an answer to the question of when personhood begins? Can a law which permits late abortion but not infanticide be morally justified? These are just some of the questions this book sets out to address. In an extended analysis of the moral and legal status of abortion, Kate Greasley offers an alternative account to the reputable arguments of Ronald Dworkin and Judith Jarvis Thomson and instead brings the philosophical notion of 'personhood' to the foreground of this debate. Structured in three parts, the book considers the relevance of prenatal personhood for the moral and legal evaluation of abortion; traces the key features of the conventional debate about when personhood begins, and examines problems in abortion law and regulation, including the issue of selective abortion. The book concludes with a snapshot into the current controversy surrounding the scope of the right to conscientiously object to participation in abortion provision."-- Taken from dust jacket.