Jamie Loftus

The utilitarian argument compares the consequences of each.

The loss of an actual child's life, a life in which a great deal of parental and societal resources have been invested, is much more consequential than the loss of a potential life in utero.

And thus, to a utilitarian, abortion looks more like birth control than like murder.

SBF, that's what they always call him.

The kid.

Sam.

SBF

Steph's application of utilitarianism helped him resolve some nagging doubts he had about the ethics of abortion.

It made him feel comfortable being pro-choice, as his friends, family, and peers were.

He saw the essential rightness of his philosophical faith.

So that's very fucked up.

That is so deep.

The term choice is used at the very end there, but it's clear that he's not thinking about this in terms of the actual value of human bodily autonomy.

That does not weigh into utilitarian calculus for him whatsoever.

No.

And again, even like, look, I shit reflexively sometimes on utilitarianism, not because of the inherent value or disvalue of thinking that way, but about the way it gets talked about by these people.

But like, if you're actually a utilitarian,

and you care about the greatest good for the greatest number of people, then bodily autonomy should factor into that, right?

Like human bodily autonomy should be hugely important to you.

Yes.