PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - D Stretton TI - Critical notice—<em>Defending life: a moral and legal case against abortion choice</em> by Francis J Beckwith AID - 10.1136/jme.2007.023606 DP - 2008 Nov 01 TA - Journal of Medical Ethics PG - 793--797 VI - 34 IP - 11 4099 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/34/11/793.short 4100 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/34/11/793.full SO - J Med Ethics2008 Nov 01; 34 AB - 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.