Judith Thomson A Defense Of Abortion

Over the course of this semester in this class, we have read and discussed several different types of arguments. From searching for a basic definition of what it means to be an individual and survive as one to what it means to exist on equal footing with beings of other species, each argument has presented its own compelling views. As this class was my first philosophy class I have ever taken, certain arguments grabbed my attention more than others. Of these, the argument and position presented by Judith Jarvis Thomson in “A Defense of Abortion” caused me to rethink my view on the topic. Raised in a politically conservative environment, the argument against abortion I most commonly heard was that fetuses are people and should be afforded rights
Thomson leverages three metaphors to make her point: a world-renowned violinist whose very existence depends on their sudden parasitic attachment to another; a celebrity whose touch is curative to anyone who receives it (note: not Jesus); and people-seeds that can take root wherever they land and result in people-plants growing without restriction. Thomson’s acceptance of fetal personhood appears to be in an effort to placate those who object to abortion on the grounds that “being human” is enough of a reason to not abort a fetus. By accepting this fetal personhood, Thomson embraces a rights-oriented position – the right to life of the mother, the right to life of the fetus, the right to not be killed, the right to autonomy, the right to not be forced into providing for another… the list can go on. While Thomson accepts that both a fetus and a mother both have mutually exclusive rights to life, Thomson also points out that in the case of a dependent being and supportive being (i.e., a fetus and a mother) that the dependent being’s right to life does not supersede the supportive being’s right to life. It is admirable that Thomson’s defense of this position goes on to include several instances of nuance, however ultimately the being
A fetus cannot come into being without there being a mother to host the fetus within her person. A fetus comes into being via a biological interaction between an unfertilized egg and a sperm. The specific vehicle for this interaction is sexual reproduction. Within the human species, however, it is not always desired that a fetus be the final result of the sexual activity – Thomson explores this in her people-seeds metaphor. So if a woman engages in sexual activity of her own volition but without the intention of pregnancy and a pregnancy occurs, the woman stands to suffer at some level if the pregnancy is forced to continue. A woman possesses self-awareness, this is a fact. At a minimum, the self-awareness to have the ability to express preference or interest on a topic. This capacity for self-awareness, preferences, or interest is balanced out by the capacity for suffering if the woman is not able to realize her preferences or interests. In the case of an unwanted pregnancy, a woman may have the preference of terminating the pregnancy as to not adversely impact her life. After all, the woman has been alive long enough to establish a way of life and a career, the latter of which is arguably the most important aspect of maintaining oneself in our increasingly capitalistic western