TY - JOUR T1 - Self-ownership, abortion and infanticide. JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 133 LP - 138 DO - 10.1136/jme.5.3.133 VL - 5 IS - 3 AU - E F Paul AU - J Paul Y1 - 1979/09/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/5/3/133.abstract N2 - Doctors have been placed in an anomalous position by abortion laws which sanction the termination of a fetus while in a woman's womb, yet call it murder when a physician attempts to end the life of a fetus which has somehow survived such a procedure. This predicament, the doctors' dilemma, can be resolved by adopting a strategy which posits the right to ownership of one's own body for human beings. Such an approach will generate a consistent policy prescription, one that sanctions the right of all pregnant women to abortions, yet grants the fetus, after it becomes viable as a potentially independent person, a right to its own body. The doctors' dilemma is surmounted, then, by requiring that abortions of viable fetuses be performed in a manner that will produce a live delivery. Hence, infanticide and termination of viable fetuses are proscribed. ER -