Conclusion

In this book, we have discussed our reasons for being pro-choice and pro-life in regard to the abortion issue. We have also glimpsed some agreement on related issues that, we think, springs from the reasons we take the positions we do. Some recap is probably useful. On a range of issues concerning social justice, we can say we have considerable agreement. We both think that there should be serious societal measures against poverty, for family leave, against racial injustice, for prisoners, against the death penalty, and for our earth and its environment. A “hands-off” approach that seems to characterize some libertarian visions at the level of government strikes both of us as problematic. We also have some common ground on issues of sexual ethics. This is because we both think that delaying sexual activity in young people is an important goal to have, since sex among young people often fails certain basic ethical norms (some as basic as Kantian norms requiring that one’s partner be viewed as a full person in her own right). We also agree that popular media has a strongly pedagogical hand in the mischief, as does pornography, and that we cannot reasonably expect healthy sexual behavior from a society whose chief forms of entertainment do not model it.