A Defense Of Abortion By Judith Thomson - 1678 Words

What takes precedence; an unborn fetus’ life or its mother’s right to her body? Anti-abortionist argue that the life of an unborn fetus has priority, and thus abortion is morally impermissible as it violates the fetus’ right to life. In her article â€Å"A Defense of Abortion†, Judith Thomson argues that abortion is morally permissible under the certain conditions where the rights of the fetus fail to surpass a mother’s right of choice. For the sake of her argument, Thomson allows the assumption that a fetus is a person, and instead attacks the premise that the fetus’ right to life is stronger than that of a mother’s body integrity. The main argument that Thomson makes is that right to life, defined by some as the right to â€Å"be given the bare minimum a man needs for continued life†, is not an absolute right (Thomson 55). This means that the right to life is not unconditionally above all other rights, such as the right of bod ily integrity. For Thomson, this allows a mother to make the morally permissible decision to have an abortion for limited reasons: in the case of rape, pregnancy threatens the life of the mother, and the mother took measures to prevent the contraception. Thomson undertakes a Deontological when making her argument, which I will dispute using a Utilitarian approach. While I agree with Thomson that the fetus’ right to life does not allow the use of the mother’s body in cases of rape and threat to life, I will argue against the premise that an abortion is morallyShow MoreRelatedA Defense Of Abortion By Judith Thomson965 Words   |  4 PagesPhilosopher Judith Thomson, in her article â€Å"A Defense of Abortion,† presents a hypothetical case of a famous violinist who has a health condition that can only be healed by getting â€Å"connected† to someone compatible and use his kidneys for 9 months to clean his contaminated blood. A compatible person is then kidn apped, rendered unconscious, and connected without permission to the dying violinist. When the victim wakes up, he gets an explanation and is presented with two options: he stays connectedRead MoreA Defense Of Abortion By Judith Thomson1468 Words   |  6 PagesZiyun Wang In A Defense of Abortion, Judith Thomson’s statement against abortion constructs on her agreement that fetus is a human being, for the sake of argument, therefore has the right to life. She shows that the basic argument against abortion is inadequate. The basic argument of abortion goes: the first premise is that every person has right to life; the second premise is that the fetus is a human being; the conclusion is that the abortion is impermissible. Thomson found this statementRead MoreA Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson1549 Words   |  7 Pagesif she did not have an abortion. In such circumstances, the woman’s right to self-defence outweighs a fetus’ right to life, however I would not allow that the mother’s right outweighs the fetus’ if the mother wanted to have an abortion of convenience because this denies the child of possible future experiences. Firstly, I will outline Judith Jarvis Thomson’s argument for self-defence. In her article, ‘A Defense of Abortion’, Thomson provides an analogy in favour of abortion. She asks the reader toRead MoreA Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson934 Words   |  4 PagesJudith Jarvis Thomson is an American moral philosopher that is well known for her defense of moral justice and description of moral rights. She has published in prestigious papers in ethics, metaphysics, and the philosophy of law. Including the most widely written essay â€Å"A Defense of Abortion† , that was published in 1971 in the journal of philosophy and public affairs. This essay constructs abortion rights with pregnant woman’s rights to control her own body and it’s life support purpose, as opposedRead MoreA Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson951 Words   |  4 PagesIn Judith Jarvis Thomson’s A Defense of Abortion, Thomson explores the relationship betwe en the rights of a fetus and the rights of a human, in this case the mother. Thomson is an American moral philosopher and meta-physician. She is known for her defense of moral objectivity, her account of moral rights, her views about the incompleteness of the term good, and her use of thought experiments to make philosophical points. In the article, Thomson defends abortions in several certain circumstancesRead MoreA Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson921 Words   |  4 PagesAbortion is a major issue that has lead to many different opinions, ideas, and various debates. Proponents for abortion often use the fact that a fetus is not a moral person to justify their position, whereas those who are against the issue often claim that a fetus is a moral person and should deserve every right a moral person has, including the right to live. Judith Jarvis Thomson, however, takes an entirely different approach. In her article â€Å"A Defense of Abortion† Thomson argues tha t even ifRead MoreA Defense of Abortion by Judith Jarvis Thomson1354 Words   |  5 PagesJudith Jarvis Thomson proposes her argument in her article, A Defense of Abortion. There, she explains to her readers during what circumstances is abortion justifiable. Thomson uses the argument by analogy strategy to explain to her readers her argument. She tries to reach her conclusion by comparing it to similar cases. The point she is trying to make is to tell her readers that abortion is morally permissible only in some cases, like when the mother has been a victim of rape, when contraceptionRead MoreA Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson1302 Words   |  6 PagesJudith Jarvis Thomson argues in â€Å"A Defense of Abortion† that abortion in cases of rape is acceptable because of the element of coercion. She makes a preliminary assumption that the foetus has a right to life, but she argues that this right to life does not necessarily include the right not to be killed. She m akes this argument in large part through a particularly vivid analogy of an unconscious violinist. Thomson claims that the analogy defends abortion in cases of rape by showing that if a woman’sRead MoreA Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson1784 Words   |  8 Pages In Judith Jarvis Thomson’s essay â€Å"A Defense of Abortion† (1971), she defends the thesis that abortion is morally permissible. She argues that even if a fetus is a person, and possesses every right to life, that that in itself does not constitute the impermissibility of abortion. In this essay, I will defend and critique Thomson’s defense of abortion’s moral permissibility in light of apparent weaknesses that critics have pointed out. Thomson’s argues that abortion is morally permissible. She grantsRead MoreEssay on Judith Jarvis Thomson: a Defense of Abortion1946 Words   |  8 PagesJudith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion – CRITICAL EXPOSITION The goal of Judith Jarvis Thomson in her defense of abortion is to sway the ideas of those who are against abortion by challenging the arguments they give for thinking so. She begins by stating a premise. â€Å"For the sake of the argument† a human embryo is a person. This premise is one of the arguments most opponents of abortion use, but as she points out, isn’t much of an argument at all. These people spend a lot of their time dwelling