1 )The relationship between Thompson’s and Marquis’ arguments are very different, but I believe both are compatible with each other. They both take the personhood out of the question, so there is no debate on if the fetus is a human in the womb. Marquis discusses voluntary conception and Thompson does not really discuss that. Thompson’s conclusion deals more with the exceptional cases that Marquis doesn’t explain at all. Thompson weighs the rights of the individuals involved in the pregnancy like the mother and fetus against each other. Marquis, on the other hand, focuses on the concept of what makes killing wrong thus killing a fetus that could possibly have a future like ours is bad. His conclusion focuses on the rights of the victim in the mother/fetus situation. The mortality of the situation in both arguments deals with which person’s rights out ways the other’s. In Marquis, the fetus’ rights outweigh the mother’s rights. In Thompson’s argument, the mother’s rights can trump the fetus’ rights in certain circumstance.…
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She justifies this point with the violinist case, which states that a famous violinist is about to die so his fan base nonconsensually kidnaps you and hooks your origins up to his for 9 months until he can get better and live on his own again. As the reader, you can choose to stay hooked up to him or cut the cords, which would kill the violinist, but allow you to live your life as you did previously. Thomson argues that it would be extremely unfair and immoral to you to force you to stay attached to the violinist, as you had nothing to do with him being connected to you in the first place. She goes on to compare this to nonconsensual intercourse that causes pregnancy and states that it is morally acceptable to abort the fetus because, just like being attached to the violinist, a woman did not ask for or do anything to warrant being pregnant. Her next argument was on the topic of abortion when the mother's life is at risk.…
The goal of Judith Jarvis Thomson in her defense of abortion is to sway the ideas of those who are against abortion by challenging the arguments they give for thinking so. She begins by stating a premise. “For the sake of the argument” a human embryo is a person. This premise is one of the arguments most opponents of abortion use, but as she points out, isn’t much of an argument at all. These people spend a lot of their time dwelling on the fact that the fetus is a person and hardly any time explaining how the fetus being a person has anything to with abortion being impermissible. In the same breath, she states that those who agree with abortion spend a lot of their time saying the fetus is in fact not a person. Either way, no argument is really formed. No reasons are given. For sake of challenging an actual argument, she is disregarding this issue. With this premise out of the way, she addresses the basic argument the pro-choice campaign believes. “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; everyone would grant that. But surely a person’s right to life is stronger and more stringent than the mother’s right to decide what happens in and to her body, and so outweighs it. So the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed.” The remainder of her paper is a series of analogies meant to challenge the basic argument mention above. When looking at the analogies separately, they are in no way related to the abortion topic, but the conclusions drawn from each can be applied. Because these examples aren’t directly related to the debate, our emotions won’t necessarily be involved and we can clearly think about what is the “right” thing to do for each specific scenario.…
After reading “A defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson and what he had to say with his violinist analogy involving the kidney replacement. I agree with what he has to say on not only abortion itself but, whether or not a fetus should have the right to the women’s body. I don’t think that the fetus should be given the right to use the women’s body because what if she does not what to have a baby and ends up getting pregnant anyway. Also, each time a woman engages in sexual intercourse, she is not inviting the fetus to live inside her body. This is why birth control and other contraceptives are not a sure deal when dealing with sexual intercourse. What if the birth control method fails and the women end's up getting pregnant? She did…
Thompson feels that its false. In her first thought experiment, she goes on talk about how one day you just wake up in the hospital with a famous violinist attached to your kidneys, and he needs the use of your kidneys for nine months. You have to keep in mind that every person has a right to life and so the violinist has a right to life so it would be impressionable to unplug the violinist. You also have a right to bodily integrity which trumps a right to life. This example shows us that there are some cases in which abortion is morally permissible. This analogy about a pregnancy that resulted from a…
Marquis believes that abortion is “morally unjustified” (525). His argument is that “it is wrong to kill us because such killing deprives us of all the value of our futures” (525). He also argues that fetuses are close enough to being like us and that is it just as wrong to kill them as it is to kill us. The conclusion of his argument is that not all abortions are wrong since there may be other conditions in some cases such as “abortion before implantation, when the life of the woman is threatened by a pregnancy or abortion and abortion after rape”…
Marquis stated in his writing “Clearly, it is wrong to kill adult human beings. Clearly, it is not wrong to end the life of some arbitrarily chosen single human cell. Fetuses seem to be like arbitrarily chosen human cells in some respects and like adult humans in other respects.” (Wolff pg. 361). Marquis thus suggest that a proper contention for an anti-abortionist (Value of the future account) must be founded on the theory that if someone is not afforded the ‘opportunity’ to experience certain gains or projects due to the negligence/actions of others then whomever is responsible for the loss of that person’s life is in fact morally…
Johnson starts off by going back to history telling the audience Roe v. Wade was announced during the "Dark Ages" stating "In the ensuing decades, knowledge regarding the development of unborn humans, and their capacities at various stages of growth, has advanced in quantum leaps." (Johnson), putting an example of why doctors should administer anesthesia into an unborn child around twenty weeks of pregnancy. Thomson's article starts off by explaining the alteration between baby rights and mother's rights coming from her very own perspective. She begins with how a woman has the right to choose her own lifestyle and how they want to live as long as it does not take away someone else's right to live and jumping straight to facts explaining her reasons. A difference between Johnson's and Thomson's articles is that Thomson gives her own analogy for her choice and debate on abortion and describes it as "...someone waking up strapped to a famous, but unconscious violinist." (Thomson). She uses this analogy to give the audience a different and better view on abortion. Thomson also uses number of rebuttals on her arguments and debates after each one of her paragraphs from each content. The two articles contrast in using examples. Thompson brings out more examples and has a bigger argument with abortion and the…
In Judith Jarvis Thompson 's A Defense of Abortion ' a different view of abortion is presented (47 . She contends that even if it is to be perceived that a fetus is a person worthy of the basic right to life still , it does not follow that abortion must be condemned just for that reason of the latter 's right to life . She asserted that abortion involves another individual , and another life for that matter . This means that the mother -her right to life and to her body- must also be considered…
Due to boldily autonomy and the clear distinction between a fetus and a rational, self-aware person, abortion is morally permissible practically whenever the mother chooses it, given it is done humanely. Most people would agree that in cases where the woman did not choose pregnancy, like rape, abortion should be morally permissible due to bodily autonomy and the immorality of asking someone to undergo psychological and physical trauma due to something beyond their control. This is supported by the Famous Violinist argument which explains that women, especially those who are pregnant due to rape, are not morally obligated to endure this immense sacrifice, even if it would be nice to do so (Singer, 1975, p.113-114). Whilst Thomson’s argument has fallen under criticism based on utilitarianism, these arguments are countered by Singer’s deconstruction of the Conservative Argument and its flawed perception that human life is inherently special, which demonstrates the moral permissibility of most abortions. The Conservative Argument’s premise that a fetus is an innocent human can mean two things: either the fetus is a person that has self-awareness and rational thought or a fetus is a member of the human species (Singer, 1975, p.117).…
Marquis argues that killing a fetus deprives it of a valuable future/future like ours, and concludes by saying abortion is not morally permissible. I agree with Marquis’s argument that it is wrong to kill a fetus through abortion because I believe that they have a valuable future as all humans do. Abortion is defined as the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, which is most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. (dictionary.com) Furthermore I do agree with Marquis that majority of deliberate abortions are seriously immoral, however I do believe that in some cases it is permissible, for instance choosing to have an abortion after being sexually assaulted or due to life threatening circumstances.…
P1: Whether or not the unborn has a right to life, it does not have a right to…
Death is morally wrong according to American ethics and values so is the killing of unborn fetuses morally wrong as well? A fetus is considered a human life because life begins at the moment of conception. Abortions are painful, inhumane, and dangerous for the child, the mother, and the mother 's health. Women should not have an abortion because it is an act of taking human life, can result in medical complications later in life, and to complete the process the mother and her baby must go through horrific procedures.…
: A growing issue in our society today is late-term abortion. A mother and baby develop a very emotional connection through pregnancy, which can leave a mother feeling very devastated if she pursues this act. Since late-term unborn babies begin to develop a sense of consciousness, there is no reason that they should not be treated as people and be acknowledged as having human rights. In a situation where two people’s benefits are conflicting, this right must be deliberated and equivalent. I will argue that the moral principles of Kant, Marquis, and Thomson on abortion will oppose Sue and her husband’s decision to have a late-term abortion at seven months pregnant.…