Murphy T F
J Med Ethics. 1985 Jun;11(2):79-83. doi: 10.1136/jme.11.2.79.
Spontaneous abortion is rarely addressed in moral evaluations of abortion. Indeed, 'abortion' is virtually always taken to mean only induced abortion. After a brief review of medical aspects of spontaneous abortion, I attempt to articulate the moral implications of spontaneous abortion for the two poles of the abortion debate, the strong pro-abortion and the strong anti-abortion positions. I claim that spontaneous abortion has no moral relevance for strict pro-abortion positions but that the high incidence of spontaneous abortion is not (as some claim) eo ipso any sort of justification for voluntarily induced abortion. Secondly, I show that if the strict anti-abortionist position is to be taken seriously in its insistence that prenatal life has a right to be protected by virtue of its being conceived, then it seems necessary to take measures to prevent spontaneous abortion and its presumptive causes, and this as a matter of moral obligation.
在对堕胎的道德评价中，自然流产很少被提及。事实上，“堕胎”几乎总是仅指人工流产。在简要回顾自然流产的医学方面之后，我试图阐明自然流产对于堕胎辩论的两极，即强烈的支持堕胎立场和强烈的反对堕胎立场的道德含义。我认为，自然流产与严格的支持堕胎立场没有道德关联，但自然流产的高发生率并非（如一些人所声称的）理所当然地成为自愿人工流产的某种正当理由。其次，我表明，如果严格的反堕胎立场要在其坚持认为胎儿期生命因其已受孕而有权受到保护这一点上被认真对待，那么似乎有必要采取措施来预防自然流产及其推测的原因，并且这是一项道德义务。
