Abortion: a Very Complex and Controversial Issue

Abortion: a Very Complex and Controversial Issue

Hieu Bui
Philosophy 105
Mr. Xinmin Zhu
27 April 2009
Abortion
Abortion has been a complex and controversial issue in the United States, the problem begins should it be a woman’s choice or a government’s choice whether or not to kill her unborn child or fetus. The moral philosophical essay “Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson explores a various of cases where abortion is permissible such as rape and the mother’s health is in danger. In her paper, she uses hypothetical analogies to make readers think about the issues and prove the difference between the right of the woman and the act she is suppose to. In her argument, she uses indirect comparison to argue her point on the issue as the supporter of the abortion. At first, she begins with the conservative premise that the fetus is a person from the conception which she does not believe in. Using that premise, Thomson still can argue that even the fetus is a person, abortion is still remaining justifiable.
In order to prove her support of abortion, she uses a fictional story about violinist to compare when the pregnancy is the result of rape. Thomson gives a situation what if one morning you wake up and find a world-famous violinist attached to your body giving him the access to your kidney. Then, the doctor informs you of what happened and says that if you unplug yourself from the violinist would kill him. Fortunately, you only have to lie there with this unconscious man for nine months. Thomson then says what if it takes more than nine months for him to recover, then you are expected to lie there because he is a person so he has the right to live and you have no right to take his life away by unplugging him from you.
Thomson uses this example to point the major flaw in pro-life’s views, “But surely a person’s right to life is stronger and more stringent than the mother’s right to decide what happen in and to her body, and so outweigh it.” If you choose to unplug the violinist from your...

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