The Ethics Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson

The ethics of abortion is a topic that establishes arguments that attempt to argue if abortion is morally justified or not. Philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson wrote a pro- choice piece called “A Defense of Abortion.” In this paper, she presents various arguments that attempt to defend abortion by relating it to the woman carrying the fetus and her right in controlling her body. On the other side of the spectrum, philosopher Don Marquis wrote a pro- life paper called “Why Abortion Is Immoral.” Ultimately, Marquis argues that abortion is immoral with rare exceptions because it is resulting in the deprivation of the fetus’s valuable future. He supports his paper by creating the future-like-ours argument that compares the future of a fetus to the

Adams’s unwanted pregnancy, I will use their arguments to see if her decision to have an abortion is morally justified. Through Thomson’s use of the violinist analogy and burglar and people-seeds analogy, I will show that Mrs. Adams’s abortion is morally justified because Mrs. Adams got pregnant despite the use of contraception; showing that the fetus’s right to life and its potential is not equal to the use of her body since she did not consent to the fetus’s use of her body. In Thomson’s “A Defense on Abortion,” she presents her pro-choice argument which is mainly supported by analogies called the violinist analogy, burglar analogy and the people seeds analogy. Firstly, she begins her argument with speaking about whether or not a fetus is a person from conception. This is the use of a pro- life argument that relates to a fetus being a person and how killing a person is wrong; therefore, killing a fetus is wrong. She willingly admits why she partially agrees with the premise of the fetus being a person. It is a belief that a human being has a right to life and if the fetus is a human being that means that the fetus also has a right to life. In Thomson’s argument, she is not arguing to disprove

His main argument is the future-like-ours argument and why killing a fetus is wrong. His major argument is all about how there are very rare exceptions in which abortion isn’t morally wrong. He initially started his argument by showing the various points of the intellectual battles between people who are pro- choice and pro- lifers. He speaks about the “it look like a baby” idea and how it causes a standoff which makes it difficult for the arguments to be successfully emphasized. The arguments are not successfully emphasized since they do not meet in the middle because they are either too broad or too narrow. Marquis speaks about how anti- abortionists would claim that because a fetus looks like a baby at a certain point and how they find it sufficient enough information to support their pro- life stance. He also speaks about how those who were pro- choice would claim because the fetus “looks like a baby” doesn’t necessarily mean that it is one, which means that the abortion wouldn’t be wrongful (Marquis, 447). He mentions that these arguments seem to be spoken as if they are sufficient to determine whether or not it is morally right to abort a fetus. Marquis decides to drift from the path that has been paved by other pro- lifers before him and he decides to make his own. Marquis decides to start with human beings, more specifically, adults