The Debate Of The Permissibility Of Abortion

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The permissibility of abortion has been a crucial topic for debates for many years. People have yet to agree upon a stance on whether abortion is morally just. This country is divided into two groups, believers in a woman’s choice to have an abortion and those who stand for the fetus’s right to live. More commonly these stances are labeled as pro-choice and pro-life. The traditional argument for each side is based upon whether a fetus has a right to life. Complications occur because the qualifications of what gives something a right to life is not agreed upon. The pro-choice argument asserts that only people, not fetuses, have a right to life. The pro-life argument claims that fetuses are human beings and therefore they have a right to life. Philosopher, Judith Jarvis Thomson, rejects this traditional reasoning because the right of the mother is not brought into consideration. Thomson prepares two theses to explain her reasoning for being pro-choice; “A right to life does not entail the right to use your body to stay alive” and “In the majority of cases it is not morally required that you carry a fetus to term.” Thompson’s theses are strengthened by both hypothetical and real life examples. She begins by granting that fetuses become people from the moment of conception and therefore have rights. Thompson employs this strategy to disparage the traditional argument so that we can cultivate a deeper analysis on the permissibility of abortion. The first analogy Thomson applies is one where you are drugged; a famous violinist is attached to you and he must use your kidneys for nine months in order to live. This situation cultivates the question of whether or not you are allowed to unplug from the violinist. If a person were to acce... ... middle of paper ... ... Although, the media and the government often try to convince women otherwise, the only person who has a right to your body is yourself, not a baby nor a man. Pro-life advocates use guilt to convince women that a fetus, which is nothing more than a lump of cells, takes precedent and has a greater right to your body than you do. Thompson’s many examples throughout her paper provide strong evidence towards proving her stance and have convinced me to have an elevated understanding of a woman’s right to her body. Thompson uses analogies to provide evidence that a fetus does not have a right to a women’s body. Just as one would not require a women to let a famous violinist use her body to live, one should expect the same treatment for a fetus. Having a baby is a huge sacrifice for a women and it should not be a moral requirement to have to take on such a responsibility.

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    Thompson, a pioneer on the moderate side, suggests that abortion is in fact sometimes morally permissible. Her main goal was to not only argue for abortions permissibility, but to challenge some of the common arguments presented for the impermissibility of abortion. Explaining her goals, she argues that a fetus has a right to life. But the question is what does it mean to have the right to life? Well, in some cases, a right solely means entitlement and in other cases, it means a certain kind of claim that one has against another. Thomson presents that the right to life does not mean it is the right to have the bare minimum needed for survival. Presenting the famous violinist case, she explains the storyline of a person who wakes up and is attached to a famous violinist. If the individual decides to detach him or herself, the violinist dies unless they stay attached for several months to save him. This case symbolizes the correlation between abortion and rape. Meaning, having an abortion, like detaching from the violinist, is morally permissible in cases where the pregnancy is not wanted. Her argument, using the case, claims that abortion in the case of rape is in fact morally permissible. With is then clear that Thomson rejects that the fetus’s right to life outweighing the mothers right to decide what she wants. In other cases, abortion is an unjust killing. However, she does note her argument may not be satisfactory to all proponents of the moral permissibility of

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