Thomson Rebuttal

The quick argument is an idea that every person has the same right to life. It acknowledges that every mother deserves the right to have a say of what goes on with her body, but the right to life carries significantly more weight and states the fetus is indeed a person. Therefore abortion should not be allowed because it kills a living fetus/person. A common problem that arises within this argument can be brought to our attention through the example of the violinist. The example depicts a hypothetical scenario in which you or some random person suddenly wakes up in a hospital bed with a notorious violinist attached to your kidneys. To your surprise this man needs to make use of your kidneys for almost a full year or else he/she will unfortunately
One idea is that the right to life involves the right to not being killed (similar to violinist example). Thomson’s rebuttal is that the only right to life is the right against unjust killing. Basically stating that we do not know if the killing of the fetus would be just and what does this justice come from. An example to help support Thomson’s idea is what if a girl was raped and did not want to conceive the child due to horrible reminder it would bring, is this just? A different hypothesize helps us further understand this dilemma. Does a fetus have the right to the mother’s body? If a woman allows herself to engage in sexual relations, fully aware of the possibility of pregnancy, then the mother should indeed be responsible for the living fetus and should allow the fetus a right to her body. This argument is not valid in a case where sexual relations are forced upon a woman. However, this argument still holds the mother responsible for the fetus’s life even though the mother’s life may be at risk. Thomson’s response to this is that even though we could of potentially done something to avoid pregnancy, most people won’t want to accept responsibility. In the end, we could avoid pregnancies due rape if the proper precautions were set in