%0 Journal Article %A D Stretton %T Critical notice—Defending life: a moral and legal case against abortion choice by Francis J Beckwith %D 2008 %R 10.1136/jme.2007.023606 %J Journal of Medical Ethics %P 793-797 %V 34 %N 11 %X Francis Beckwith’s Defending life: a moral and legal case against abortion choice defends the pro-life position on moral, legal and political grounds. In this critical notice I consider three key issues and argue that Beckwith’s treatment of each of them is unpersuasive. The issues are: (1) whether abortion is politically justified by the principle that we should err on the side of liberty in the face of reasonable disagreement over the moral status of the fetus; (2) whether the fetus’s natural capacity or genetic propensity to develop rationality and communication is sufficient to give it a moral right to life; and (3) whether abortion is morally justified on the basis of bodily rights. I also show that Beckwith’s book fails to consider several important issues and arguments. %U https://jme.bmj.com/content/medethics/34/11/793.full.pdf