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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. In her article Thomson starts off by giving antiabortionists the benefit of the doubt that fetuses are human persons. She adds that all persons have the right to life and that it is wrong to kill any person. Also she states that someone's right to life is stronger than another person's autonomy and that the only conflict with a fetuses right to life is a mother's right to autonomy. Thus the premises make abortion impermissible.
Then Thomson precedes to attacks the premise that one's right to autonomy can be more important to another's right to life in certain situations. She uses quite an imaginative story to display her point of view. Basically there is a hypothetical situation in which a very famous violinist is dying. Apparently the only way for the violinist to survive is to be "plugged" into a particular woman, in which he could use her kidneys to continue living. The catch is that the Society of Music Lovers kidnapped this woman in the middle of the night in order to obtain the use of her kidneys. She then woke up and found herself connected to an unconscious violinist.
This obviously very closely resembles an unwanted pregnancy. It is assumed that the woman unplugging herself is permissible even though it would kill the violinist. Leading to her point of person's right to life is not always stronger than another person's right to have control over their own body. She then reconstructs the initial argument to state that it is morally impermissible to abort a fetus if it has the right to life and has the right to the mother's body. The fetus has the right to life but only has the right to a mother's body if the mother voluntarily gives that right to the fetus. Therefore it is only in the case of voluntary pregnancy is abortion impermissible.
In disagreement many people say that one person's right to life always outweighs another person's right to autonomy. However Thomson's argument makes a very interesting unwanted pregnancies resulting in permissible abortions. To counteract her claims I'm going to use a hypothetical situation as she did. Let's say a mother gives birth to a set of conjoined twins. The twins grow up having a somewhat troublesome life considering the fact that neither one has the opportunity to achieve autonomy. Once they get older, lets say age 18, twin A obtains the information that twin B's survival depends on the use of twin A's vital organ's.
However twin A would survive if twin B was too be separated from him thus granting twin A his right to autonomy. It seems that it is obvious that it not permissible for twin A to kill twin B. The following argument shows a more concrete view of the situation. It is morally impermissible for twin A to kill twin B if he has the right to life and the right to twin A's body. Twin B does have a right to life. Twin B prima facie has the right to twin A's body.
Therefore it is morally impermissible for twin A to kill twin B. In turn this would create the argument that abortion is not permissible even when the pregnancy is not voluntary. The conjoined twin scenario seems to throw a wrench into Thomson's argument. There are a few possible responses to the argument from Thomson's point of view. One could say that abortion is permissible in the case of rape since not only is the fetus using the mother's body without her consent but it was violently and wrongfully conceived in the mother. Since in the case with the twins, twin B was simply innocently attached to twin A it seems like a entirely different situation from that of rape.
However the fetus is similarly innocent even in the case of rape the act was wrong. So the argument of rape leading to abortion could also be thrown out. A familiar phrase helps sum up the situation and that is "two wrongs don't make a right. " Someone in alliance with Thomson could also argue that in the case that the mother is dying because of complications in her pregnancy abortion would be permissible in order to save the mother's life. Back to the case of the twins, we could say that twin B is slowly draining the life out of twin A.
In this case it would still not for permissible for twin B to be killed even though it would assure the survival of twin A. I feel that Thomson's argument was easily refuted although it was very imaginative and clever. It doesn't seem that her idea of abortion only being wrong in the case of voluntary pregnancy will hold water too long. In my personal opinion I feel that abortion is generally wrong. I think that if the woman became pregnant through consensual sex, even if she did not want to have a child, abortion is wrong regardless of the contraceptive precautions that were exercised. In the terribly unfortunate case of rape I feel it is more than understandable for the woman to want to abort the fetus.
Seeing how the fetus had no control over the situation it seems that they should be given the chance at life. Although it is very unfortunate for the woman to have to be in such a situation I think it would be in the best interest for everyone to have the child. Maybe someday the unwanted child could make a contribution to all of mankind. The one situation that is very complicated to me is in the case of the mother's life depending on the fetus being alive. I feel that every individual situation should carefully studied while considering all possible outcomes.
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