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A Defense Of Abortion Analysis

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A Defense Of Abortion Analysis
Abortion should be morally permissible, in most cases, because a women’s right to her own body neutralizes the unfortunate circumstance of an aborted fetus. Abortion should only be impermissible if it is justified that a woman is getting multiple pregnancies and abortions without making use or effort of contraceptives.

A common argument against abortion is that a fetus is a human being from the moment of conception. This premise is a slippery slope because it claims that life of a person is continuous from conception to birth and moving on to childhood, which is not necessarily the case. It is a faulty case because you would not consider the life of an oak tree being continuous from when it is still an acorn. We cannot draw an imaginary …show more content…
She claims that a women’s right to live should outweigh the life of a fetus and supports her claim in the following thought experiment, famously stated in her “A Defense of Abortion (page 48-49).” Suppose you wake up one morning next to an unconscious violinist who is world renowned and a member of the “Society of Music Lovers.” The violinist has a fatal kidney problem and according to medical records, you are the only person with the right blood type to save him. So the Society of Music Lovers kidnapped you against your own will and plugged your circulatory system to his, in order to clear toxins from his body. If it was not for you being plugged to him, he would die immediately. The only way for you to save his life is to remain next to him on a hospital bed linked to him for 9 months or more. After that time you can be unplugged and the violinist would recover and live on his own. It would be extremely kind of you to remain on the hospital bed for 9 months until the violinist recovers, but suppose the doctor said that you have to stay plugged to the violinist for 9 years. If the claim that a person’s right to live outweighs a person’s right to his or her own body, then you should remain plugged to the violinist however long it would take for him to recover. Thomson’s thought experiment shows that this claim is outrageous. Who would want to sacrifice so much time for a person that you never chose to help? I certainly would
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