Is Thompson's Argument Against The Position, By Judy Jarvis Thompson

The purpose of this paper is to detail the contents of Judy Jarvis Thompson’s argument against the position that sexual intercourse implies a mothers consent for a fetus to use her body, from her paper “A Defense of Abortion,” and to evaluate the validity of her argument. On the topic of implied consent, Thompson attempts to support her position through the use of anecdotal parallels. Thompson acknowledges the argument that a fetus inherits the right to its mother’s body if the mother engaged in voluntary intercourse with the knowledge of the possibility of a resulting pregnancy. She also posits that the mother forfeits the right to abort the unborn child even as a method to save the mother’s life because of this tacit consent. On the other

The woman is fully aware of the possibility of a burglar, but she voluntarily opens her window and a burglar enters. Thompson maintains that if the argument for implied consent holds true, the women is obligated to allow the burglar to use her home. This, she says, is absurd. Furthermore, Thompson states that it would be equally absurd if the burglar managed to get through defective window bars, or if it were no burglar at all, but an innocent person who falls in. Regardless of who gets in or how, Thompson reasons that the homeowner has no obligation to entertain the unwanted intruder. These statements reflect the idea that if a woman consents to sex, she should have to accept any and all consequences of the intercourse, especially a

These seedlings are people-seeds, which can float into the house and take root in the carpets and upholstery. If a person took all possible precautions, there would still be an opportunity for the seeds to take root, in the same way that a baby can be conceived regardless of a woman’s contraceptive efforts. In the event that a seed takes root, should the woman be obligated to allow it to use her home? Thompson challenges that a woman should have the right to remove the seed and should not be expected to go to extreme measures to keep it out. This idea parallels women’s contraceptive efforts, which are known to be ineffective in rare cases, and the extreme view that women who do not seek to procreate should practice abstinence, or surgically disable their bodies from carrying children. Thompson’s assessment reveals that she believes that the argument for implied consent is flawed and does substantiate the claim that all abortion is unjust killing. Though Thompson addressed many of the main pieces of the argument for implied consent, she presented situations that do not accurately reflect reality. Both of her scenarios involved either people or “people-seeds” that entered a person’s home freely and were not personally created by the homeowner and another