Article: A Defense of Abortion
Author: Judith Jarvis Thomson

Summary

Thomson argues that even if one grants the fetus a serious right to life it does not follow that aboriton is morally impermissable.

The main thrust of oposition to the immorality of abortion is the charge to draw a line on when a fetus becomes a person. It would seem that just before the line the fetus is not a person and just after the line it is a person. If the fetus is a person, then it has a right to life. If it has a right to life, then abortioin is immoral.

Thomsom challenges this conclusion, saying that even if one grants the fetus a right to life, then it does not follow that abortion is morally impermissable. She does this via thought experiments.

Situation

Imagine that you wake up next morning and discover that you are hooked up to a famous violinist. You have been kidnapped and while you were out, hooked up to the violinist by a society of music lovers. The violinist is sick and needs to be hooked up to your kidneys for nine months. To unplug him would be to kill him.

Question Do you have a duty to remain hooked up to the famous violinist?

Discussion
You may not unplug yourself from the violinist. His rights as a person override your right to do as you please.
This strikes many as absurd. The violinist can make no claim on you without your concent.

This case is analogous with rape. Persons have a right to life only if they did not come into being because of rape.
This view seems not only ad hoc, but it seems terrible arbiritraty to deney a person a right to life because of the mere circumstances that surrounded his birth. What if the baby is carried full term? Would it still not have a right to life? What about at 35?

What if the saving the violinist’s life meant your death? Would you still be required to keep him on life support?
Most would answer of course not. Keeping from above, the violinist cannot make a claim on you.

The counter-argument to Judith Jarvis Thomson maintains the following:

Situation:

Mother must have an abortion or she will die.

In order for the abortion to be immoral in this case, i.e. it be morally allowable for the mother to have an abortion to save the life of her child; the following reasoning must apply.

The mother has a right to life.
The fetus has a right to life.
Every right to life is equal.
Violating one’s right to life is killing.
Killing is always morally impermisble.