The Ethics Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson

he Ethics of Abortion Abortions have been performed by societies that go back thousands of years but it still remains controversial. Fetuses are human biologically; many believe that performing an abortion be wrong since it is killing a human being. According to Don Marquis, abortion is immoral and is equivalent to the killing of an adult human, but is justified under certain conditions, in other words, it is prima facie wrong. On the contrary, Judith Jarvis Thomson argues that abortions are sometimes permissible under certain conditions. A dilemma that many women and families face is an unwanted pregnancy. For example, Mary and her husband have two children, despite working full time, they struggle to get by. Mary uses contraceptive
Her first example involves an individual opening a window in the comfort of his home. He does this knowing that leaving his window open comes with a slight risk of a burglar sneaking into his home thus he installs bars to secure his home. A burglar sneaks into his home despite having taken precautions. The bars are an analogy to contraceptives, which Mary was using. The individual and Mary did not consent to the outcomes they encountered since the risk of it occurring were low. But the burglar analogy is not accurate because it is comparing a criminal with an innocent fetus. Another example, that correlates to Mary’s situation is the “people seedlings” analogy. People seedlings are like pollen so if you open your windows they might root in your living room so to avoid this you installed a mesh screen that stops them from entering your living room and rooting in your home. But there is a small risk that some screens are defective. Again the mesh screens represent the use of contraceptives. The pollen manages to get inside your home and grows and develops into a person, but it does not have the right to use your living room. According to Thomson, “Surely not– despite the fact that you voluntary opened your windows… you knew that the screens were defective.” (pg. 456). You are not responsible that the screens were defective, therefore, you are not responsible for the outcome. As she
Notably, she is married and part of a marriage involves sexual relationships with her husband. It would be illogical for them to not have a sex life. Based on Thomson’s argument, it would be permissible that she has an abortion. First of all, she used contraceptives which indicates that she took actions to prevent a pregnancy. If she took these actions, then she is clearly not consenting to a pregnancy and is not obligated to continue with it. Thomson points out that a fetus’s right to life does not entail its right to use an individual’s body to preserve its own life. Therefore, Mary is not responsible for the consequences/outcome and it is morally justified to have an