Philosopher, Judith Jarvis Thompson's A Defense Against Abortion

Many are inclined to believe that the fetus has become a human being even right before birth and being brought into the world. A controversial topic around that surrounds the world, is the act of abortion permissible? Philosophers have seen this idea and tried to understand when in face is abortion permissible. Philosopher, Judith Jarvis Thompson, in her piece, “A Defense Against Abortion” explores the premise is abortion permissible in all cases. Throughout Thompson’s piece she draws multiple analogies to make her argument be seen through a different perspective. Thompson makes the claim that abortion is permissible even when in fact when a woman intentionally engages in sex and knowing what she is doing can have a high risk of pregnancy.

She claims that, opponents against abortion have been concerned to justify the independence of a fetus, to ensure that it has a right to life, just as a mother would. Making the fetus a human being (pg#). To fight off the argument she writes that what if mother’s body resulted pregnant from involuntary acts. Leading to the question being is the abortion permissible in the situation of an involuntary act? Many will claim that the mother was in a situation that entails high risks and Thompson later points out what if it was a voluntary act, is abortion permissible now? She claims that this argument an unborn person has a right to life if the mother’s act resulted from a voluntary act. While knowing the risks of that there could be a possibility of getting pregnant and leading to it being unjust to abort the baby. This is where Judith Thompson draws her analogy to suggest that it can be morally permissible to abort in situations when the woman knows the risk that can entail from sexual activities. Thompson illustrates, the situation the room has begun to get stuffy leading to the person to open the window to allow fresh air to come through the house. While now leaving, the window open there is a risk of a burglar climbs in. Leading to the fact that it would not make sense to allow the burglar to stay in and take what he needs to take. Hence that if a burglar climbs into the house we all that burglars like to burglar. Therefore, the owner of the house needs to protect the house from being burglarized. She claims we know the risks of leaving the window open there are high risks of it being burglarized. Furthermore, Thompson begins to see the argument differently in comparison to abortion, causing her to change the scenario and say that the burglar is now her friend. Now in this situation what is to happen? Thompson believes that this is the same idea when