A Defense Of Abortion By Thomson

The next issue is, in Thomson’s opinion, the most important question in the abortion debate; that is, what exactly does a right to life bring about? The premise that “everyone has a right to life, so the unborn person has a right to life” suggests that the right to life is “unproblematic,” or straight-forward. We know that isn’t true. Thomson gives an analogy involving Henry Fonda. You are sick and dying and the touch of Henry Fonda’s hand will heal you. Even if his touch with save your life, you have no right to be “given the touch of Henry Fonda’s cool hand.” A stricter view sees the right to life as more of a right to not be killed by anybody. Here too troubles arise. In the case of the violinist, if we are to “refrain from killing the violinist,” then we must basically allow him to kill you. This contradicts the stricter view. The conclusion Thomson draws from this analogy is “that having a right to life does not guarantee having either a right to be given the use of or a right to be allowed continued use of another person’s body—even if one needs it for life itself.” This argument again proves the basic argument wrong. The right to life isn’t as clear of an argument as I’m sure opponents of abortion would like it to be or believe it is.

From these two notions stems three basic views, or platforms, individuals use as the backbone for their argument when making their case for the right or wrongness of abortion. Conservatives believe under no circumstance is it morally acceptable to perform an abortion. Liberals believe abortions are permissible at any time during pregnancy and for any reason. Lastly, moderates stand behind the notion that abortions are morally permissible in some situations but not all. Over time hundreds of philosophers have attempted to justify their view point with sound theories; three of which, Don Marquis, Michael Tooley and Judith Thomson, seem to have done so successfully.

In the article, “Virtue Theory and Abortion”, by Rosalind Hursthouse, she explains her view on abortion without trying to solve the issue of if it is right or wrong. She, with the use of Virtue Theory, simply says that an action is right only if a virtuous agent would do it were they in the same circumstances. She goes on explaining how a Virtue Theorist needs to apply if actions are honest/dishonest and charitable/uncharitable; without doing this then Virtue Theory would be of no use with real moral issues because of a lack of argument.

In On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, Mary Anne Warren discusses a few arguments against abortion, namely bringing into play whether the fetus is actually a person, or “not a member of the moral community”. She

In the article, “A Defense of Abortion” by Thomson, the author states the two points that contradict the most the right of a fetus and the right of a mother. The authors main stance, is there are abortions that are morally permissible and impermissible under certain circumstances. Thomson, makes the assumption that a fetus is a person so she can prove abortion is permissible in some situations. The author states, under three cases abortion is permissible and she further elaborates on the premise with analogies she presents. The first case is rape. She proposes an analogy, that you have been kidnapped and wake up in the hospital and they plugged you in with a violinist because it needs a kidney for nine months and if you decide to unplug it,

Thomson uses many different examples in which he describes the different situations and premises that an abortion might have to states his points. There are 3 main examples that he uses the most, first is the violinist, secondly Henry Fonda and Thirdly the peoples seed. In his first argument he uses the experiment of the violinist and a person being kidnapped. The violinist is well known and famous and is in need for a kidney. In this situation the kidnap you because he can connect to your kidney and survive. But Thomson puts the point in which no one gave them the right to your body, despite the point that it could be just for a few days of months, he relates it to Abortion as that no one says that the fetus if a person has the right not

In her opening statement she first starts of stating a fetus is consider to be a human being or a person from the moment of conception. They have the right to life just like any other person does. In lines 1-10 “Most opposition to abortion relies on the premise that the fetus is a human being, a person, from the moment of conception.”(“Thomson, Judith Jarvis. “A Defense of Abortion.” Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion, Oct. 1991,spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/Phil160,Fall02/thomson.htm.”) Thomson is drawing a line between what we consider to be a person meaning a human being or an adult, to what makes us a human being or an adult. In her first example she talks about an acorn falling from an oak tree automatically being consider to be an oak tree or to be still labeled as an acorn. In lines 10 -14“Similar things might be said about the development of an acorn into an oak trees, and it does not follow that acorns are oak trees, or that we had better say they are.”(“Thomson, Judith Jarvis. “A Defense of Abortion.” Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of

Now on a different note, Thomson's main argument is set out to undermine the anti-abortionist argument. The anti-abortionist argument states: Every person has a right to life, the fetus is a person and hence has a right to life. The mother has the right to control her own body, but the fetuses' right to life is stronger than her right to control her body. Therefore, abortion is wrong. How Thomson goes about this is through analogies, and her main argument is through her violinist argument. Thomson asks you imagine that you find yourself hooked up to a famous unconscious violinist. If he can't use your kidneys for nine months, he'll die.

In “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson, her key implication is that if a fetus is a person with a right to life, then abortion would still be morally permissible in cases of rape or contraceptive failure. She mentions that all of the arguments she makes are implying the fetus being a person from the moment of conception. If the fetus is not a person from the moment of conception, but only a “fertilized ovum or a clump of cells,” then abortion is okay. First, she brings up the slippery slope argument about when to determine the fetus as being a person or not. It’s tough to say exactly when a fetus becomes a person thus the opposite side says “a fetus is a person from the moment of conception.” Thomson compares this to an acorn turning into an oak tree. Nobody would necessarily say that the acorn is an oak tree as soon as it’s planted in the ground, therefore she believes a fetus in not a person at the moment of conception. Although she does agree that the fetus becomes a person throughout a point

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. Since 1973 abortion has been an important controversial issue within the United States. 1973 marks the year that the famous Rowe versus Wade case was decided before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that abortion be legal and available to all women. Legal abortions can be performed up until the sixteenth week of pregnancy, after sixteen weeks most doctors or clinics will not perform the procedure unless keeping the baby presents a medical risk to the mother. Even in these situations abortions are very risky after sixteen weeks.

Yet, it is your duty to look after your baby. As Kant suggests, if you

     One of the toughest issues to debate in our world today is abortion. Abortion is the induced termination of pregnancy before the fetus can survive. Nowadays, abortion affects all people, not just the mother and the baby. There are moral, ethical, health-related, political, and religious aspects that affect how people feel towards abortion. By looking at religion and its views, one can see just how hard it would be to argue in the pro-choice position of this debate.

When faced with the choice of life or death, most people would choose to live. In fact, most would not want someone else making that decision for them. They would claim that as a living and independent entity it is solely their choice as to whether they continue to live or not. While this concept may seem fairly straightforward, there seems to be some great debate when it is applied to abortion. For many, they will maintain that the fetus has the right to life no matter the situation. There are some who will argue that abortion is morally permissible in specific circumstances and there are even those that will claim that abortion is always permissible. Why is there such a great divide? A major factor that plays a part in this is whether abortion involves more than one life. Because determining the beginning point of life is such a complex and emotional debate, there will be the same allowance in this paper as there was in Judith Jarvis Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion”. As she eloquently put it “I propose then, that we grant that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception” (p. 721). This will allow for a look into the moral debate of abortion from a more grounded stage. As discussed early in Thomson’s paper, most of the debate on abortion rests on whether the fetus is alive or not. Whereas the focus should be on the many other aspects of pregnancies that may lead to a mother wanting an abortion.

Is abortion ever morally justified? Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. In the past it has been argued over whether abortion should be considered moral or even legal. For the sake of sticking to one argument we will not discuss whether or not abortion should be legal. The word moral, by definition, is being concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character there are several reasons as to why some women choose to abort. The word justified means having, done for, or marked by a good or legitimate reason. There are many reasons as to why women choose to abort .To list a few reasons; cannot afford a baby now, a baby would interfere with school/employment/ability to care for others, and because they would be a single parent. Through the lens of

The Ethics Of Abortion is a very controversial subject that has been continually argued over for the past few years and probably many more years to come. The main controversy is should abortion remain legalized? Before we get into the many sides of abortion we must first define abortion. Abortion is the destruction of the fetus or unborn child while the child is still in the mother’s womb. This can be done by almost anyone from the mother herself to back alley abortions and even to abortions by clinics set up especially for this purpose. There are two sides to this abortion topic, the PRO-LIFE, which is those who are against abortion altogether and the PRO- CHOICE or those who believe it is the woman’s right to