thomson

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As one of the leading philosopher that put forward the idea supporting abortion to be morally permissible, Judith Jarvis Thomson wrote the famous Violinist argument. In his defense for abortion, Thomson begins by tackling the common argument against abortion. Many philosopher stay around the debate of when a fetus is considered a person versus just a lump of tissue, but Thomson states that a different approach or viewpoint must be taken about abortion because that concept is an ineffective argument for abortion. In her violinist argument, she grants that a fetus is a human. Thereon, Thomson examines the theory that everyone has the right to life including both the fetus and the pregnant woman. However, the main focus of her argument revolves around the analogy to demonstrate that the pregnant woman does not have an absolution obligation to sustain the life of the fetus just because it’s a person or potential person.
In the violinist argument, Thomson set up the scenario where a person was forcefully kidnapped and must be connected to an innocent dying famous violinist for nine months to maintain his vital survival. Similarly, a woman got pregnant from being raped, is forced to carry an innocent fetus in her body for nine month till birth. In both situations, the person and the pregnant woman didn't voluntarily take on the responsibility. This means that even though the fetus and violinist were innocent, but since they were not given permission by the host they have no right to use the host bodies, thus making unplugging or aborting not an unjust killing, because the pregnant woman and person didn't deprive them of their rights.
Thomson further modified her argument by shorting the time period in which the person must be connect...

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...reas unplugging the violinist is foreseen to cause harm. Responding back to the moral application of intending versus foreseeing harm, Thomson argued that the woman’s right to abort the fetus comes from her ownership to her body instead of her intentions.
In Thomson’s argument, she addresses the issues of what make abortion potentially impermissible then using a scenarios such as the violinist to counteract it. Her argument doesn't direct concentrate on the fact a life is terminated. To certain people, the act of abortion is morally impermissible because it results in ending a life. However, since there isn’t unison definition of when a fetus is considered a human, one can't provide a response to a moral question based upon that inexplicable theory. Thomson has proven that in specific situation such as rape pregnancy, it is morally permissible to have an abortion.

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