Judith Jarvis Thomson who studied at Cambridge University, she is an American philosopher who focuses on morals and abortion. She is well known for her work, “A Defense of Abortion” which she wrote about a woman's write to control her body and a fetus's right to life. The problem that she decided to spend most her time philosophizing on was abortion. Abortion has been a controversial topic for hundreds of years and Thomson decided to break it down to the basics and philosophize. Within Thomson’s essay she had multiple sections in her paper, The Basic Argument, The extreme view, What the Right to Life Is Not, and What the Right to Life Is. Before going into The Basic Argument Thomson states, for the sake of argument, that every embryo is
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The Basic Argument is based on the point that every embryo is considered a human, then she gives a response using philosophical reasoning. Thomson states, “The fetus is a person and every person has a right to life. Therefore, the fetus has a right to life. The mother has a right to decide what happens in and to her body. But the fetus's right to life outweighs the mothers right to decide what happens in and to her body. Therefore, the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed.” She then follows to suggest that sometimes abortion may be morally permissible in cases along the line of rape. Within the next section she presents, the Extreme View, which states that abortion is impermissible even in cases of rape or to save the mother's life. Thomson presents the argument, “In killing the fetus, one would be directly killing an innocent person. Directly killing an innocent person is murder. Murder is morally impermissible. Therefore, killing the fetus is morally impermissible” in support of the Extreme View. Later she then claims that this Extreme View also fails, because of the Famous Violinist Thought experiment. In this experiment Thomson sets up a hypothetical situation where, you are attached to a violinist unwillingly and he is living off of your organs when/if you unattach him
The Basic Argument is based on the point that every embryo is considered a human, then she gives a response using philosophical reasoning. Thomson states, “The fetus is a person and every person has a right to life. Therefore, the fetus has a right to life. The mother has a right to decide what happens in and to her body. But the fetus's right to life outweighs the mothers right to decide what happens in and to her body. Therefore, the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed.” She then follows to suggest that sometimes abortion may be morally permissible in cases along the line of rape. Within the next section she presents, the Extreme View, which states that abortion is impermissible even in cases of rape or to save the mother's life. Thomson presents the argument, “In killing the fetus, one would be directly killing an innocent person. Directly killing an innocent person is murder. Murder is morally impermissible. Therefore, killing the fetus is morally impermissible” in support of the Extreme View. Later she then claims that this Extreme View also fails, because of the Famous Violinist Thought experiment. In this experiment Thomson sets up a hypothetical situation where, you are attached to a violinist unwillingly and he is living off of your organs when/if you unattach him