Judith Thomson Abortion Summary

Long Essay Question: In A Defense of Abortion, Judith Thomson argues that abortion is permissible even in cases when a mother’s life is not in danger. Thomson starts her argument by mentioning the classic defenses of abortion which are focused on “drawing the line” of when a fetus can be considered a human. Thomson argues that this argument is weak and oversimplified in arguing the moral rightness of abortion (p.817). She believes that the abortion argument is centered on the fetus’s right to life and a woman’s right to control her own body. She states, “Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No doubt the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body…” (p.818). However, these two rights conflict when a fetus interferes the woman’s right to her own body. A specific example would be when a woman does not want to carry her fetus to term, or in carrying the unborn fetus, it endangers her life. In considering this, Thomson asks if the fetus’s rights are weightier than the woman’s right to her own body. Thomson concludes that the fetus is not entitled to a woman’s body. Termination of a fetus is not a betrayal of a moral obligation, while carrying a

In Marquis’s words, “…abortion is wrong for the same reason as killing a reader of this essay is wrong.” (p.838). He explains his view of abortion through explaining the wrongness of killing. According to Marquis, the wrongness of killing is defined by what killing imposes on the victim. Killing brings about premature death and death would be considered a misfortune because it causes us loss of the “future goods of consciousness.” These goods are defined as whatever that we value out of life (p.842). Marquis states, “…killing someone is wrong…when it deprives her of a future like ours” (p.843). Marquis refers to this as theory as