Thomson A Defense Of Abortion Summary

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.

In the article "A Defense of Abortion" Judith Jarvis Thomson argues that abortion is morally permissible even if the fetus is considered a person. In this paper I will give a fairly detailed description of Thomson main arguments for abortion. In particular I will take a close look at her famous "violinist" argument. Following will be objections to the argumentative story focused on the reasoning that one person's right to life outweighs another person's right to autonomy. Then appropriate responses to these objections. Concluding the paper I will argue that Thomson's "violinist" argument supporting the idea of a mother's right to autonomy outweighing a fetus' right to life does not make abortion permissible.

Second, the author uses her “expanding child” example. “Trapped in a tiny house with a growing child and you are up against a wall, and in a few minutes, you will be crushed, on the other hand the child won’t be crushed. The only thing that will save her life is to kill the child. Is abortion permissible to save the pregnant woman’s life? Because the mother being compared to that of the house, this brings up the idea that the mother should be able to do as she pleases with her body, and that her body carries more significance than the fetus’ right to life. This brings in the argument of a third-party intervention, such as a doctor. If a doctor did not agree to perform an abortion, to save this mother, then the mother would be denied her rights, and the right to decide what is done with her body. If a woman doesn’t have a right to their body, then you should not be unplugged, thus, save the violinists life. This reasoning is concluded with two smart statements, “It seems to me that to treat the matter in this very way (refuse abortion for the mother’s health) is to refuse to grant the very status of person which is so firmly insisted on for the fetus by anti-abortion advocates. (243) and “a fetus who existence is due to rape” has no right to use their mother’s bodies, and aborting them is not depriving them of anything they had a

In Judith A. Thomson’s article, ‘A defense of abortion’ Thomson defends her view that in some cases abortion is morally permissible. She takes this stance even with the premise that fetuses upon the moment of conception are in fact regarded as persons. However one criticism of her argument would be that there is a biological relationship between mother and fetus however there is no biological relationship between you and the violinist. Having this biological relationship therefore entails special responsibility upon the mother however there is no responsibility in the case of the violinist. Thomson argues against those who are opposed to abortion with her violinist thought experiment.

With Thomson’s violinist analogy she shows that although disconnecting him would result in death, it would not be morally incorrect. This argument can be applied to a woman’s pregnancy, suggesting that if you accept the prior statement and can find no reasonable difference between the violinist and the fetus occupying the woman’s body, then you should accept that abortion can be acceptable. Thomson

In Thomson’s defence of abortion she argues that abortion is permissible when a mother’s life is not at risk. Working on her interpretation of the secular conservative argument, she first assumes that the premise of a foetus being a person is true, then moves onto the second premise, that a person has the right to life. Analysing what the right to life means, she first looks at the idea that the right to life is the right to have the bare minimum a person needs in order to survive. She quickly rebuts this by providing the Henry Fonda analogy and the violinist analogy. Both of these show that just because a person needs something to survive, like Henry Fonda’s cool hand or another person’s kidneys, a person doesn’t have the right to take it. With this in mind she modifies the argument so that the right to life is the right not to be killed. This she rebuffs with the violin analogy, noting that by pulling the plugs you would in effect be killing the violinist. While the violinist didn’t have the right to your kidneys, it could be argued that he does have the right for you not to intervene. However these are your kidneys, and you should not be forced to allow him continued use. Having ascertained that the right to life is not the right to the bare minimum needed to survive, nor the right not to be killed, she concludes that the right to life is the right not to be killed unjustly, or the

In the “Violinist Analogy,” Thomson argues that in cases of rape and other ways in which a woman might become pregnant without making the decision to have sex, it is not immoral to have an abortion. She makes this argument through the analogy that you are hooked up to a “famous unconscious violinist” and if you unplug yourself you are causing the death of that violinist. This point works very well in the argument that it seems as though abortion is allowable in cases of rape.

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 Thompson, Thompson works to argue that even if a human fetus is considered a person, abortion is still often morally permissible. This paper will work to explain Thompson’s positions on the different accounts of the right to life, and to provide an evaluation of them and explain why they are not plausible, specifically regarding three of the analogies on-which she based her entire argument: the violinist, the coat, and the case of Kitty Genovese, as well as to explore a logical counterargument and explain why it’s stance is impermissible.

In the article 'A Defense of Abortion' Judith Jarvis Thomson argues that abortion is morally permissible even if the fetus is considered a person. In this paper I will give a fairly detailed description of Thomson main arguments for abortion. In particular I will take a close look at her famous 'violinist' argument. Following will be objections to the argumentative story focused on the reasoning that one person's right to life outweighs another person's right to autonomy. Then appropriate responses to these objections. Concluding the paper I will argue that Thomson's 'violinist' argument supporting the idea of a mother's right to autonomy outweighing a fetus' right to life does not

Amber Browning Dr. Fritz Alhoff PHIL 3340 02FEB2017 A Brief Analysis: Thomson and Marquis Arguments on the Topic of Abortion In the philosophical paper A Defense of Abortion by Judith Thomson, the author attempts to establish permissibility of abortion for some cases: cases of rape, when the fetus endangers the life of the mother, and consensual sex (48, 50, 59, 66). She takes a stance that “a fetus is a person” for her argument, to strengthen it, in favor of allowing the certain cases above to grant an abortion with just cause (Thomson 48). Whether, or not, a fetus is a person is not what she is trying to establish; instead it is a moral argument analyzing the right to life of the fetus in these three types of situations.

There have been arguments more than decades over abortion, some philosopher says it’s oaky to have abortion; other considers it as murder of an unborn child. However philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson shares her thoughts through her writing “A Defense of Abortion”. According to her abortion is not morally right thing to do but in certain situations it is permissible. She gave her reader mainly three examples and she wanted to convey her message through it. Three of her main example was – famous violinist thought experiment, people seeds thought experiment, and sharing chocolate theory. She first started with a nice example, where all premises were right therefore conclusion had to be true. She proposed – every fetus is a person, every person

Judith Jarvis Thomson, author of one of the most famous philosophical articles on abortion discusses the distinction between “the right to life” and “the right to be given at least the bare minimum one needs for continued life.” Thomson uses these terms as well as her famous violinist story and other examples to illustrate the morality and righteousness of abortion. Contradictory to most ethical writings on abortion, Thomson deviates from the argument regarding the fetus development and when/if a fetus becomes a person. For purposes of Thomson’s article, a fetus is a person from conception.

In “Defense to Abortion” essay Judith Thomson proposed that abortion is impermissible and she supports her claim by considering fetus as a person and it 's right to live. Her essay proposes this argument with the premises: 1) Every person has a right to life. 2) A fetus is a person. Her conclusion for this argument therefore is: So a fetus has a right to life. In context to that she also goes on to explain that because fetus has a right to life and abortion violates it, therefore abortion is impermissible and that it would be unjust killing. Thomson introduces a scenario famously known as the Violinist argument in which she said a person is plugged in to a violinist who has a kidney disease without the person’s consent. Now the person can remain plugged for nine months so that violinist gets better or he/she can unplug him/herself but then violinist will die. In this scenario, Thomson is trying to show that violinist and a fetus is the same if compared under this and abortion circumstances. She also explains that third party like doctors or other should not side with or against abortion and let mother decide what she wants to do. Thomson also shares another example

Unlike Marquis, Thomson 's famous article defended abortion. Based on her premises, the fetus is a person from the moment of conception. Thomson main argument in the article the right of the fetus life is not absolutely right. Thus, she defended that abortion is morally acceptable in some cases by talking about “The violinist experiment”, The Burglar and The Case of the People-Seeds. “Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No dough the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body; everyone would grant that. But surely a person’s right to life is stronger and more stringent than the mother’s right to decide what happens in and to her body, and so outweighs it. So the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed.”(Thomson, page438) Thomson talks about true premises. Every person has a right to life and everyone has the right to control their body. A mother has the right to choose what will happen to her body, but a life is more important. Therefore, the true premises have right