Judith Jarvis Thomson and Don Marquis each offer a side on the abortion argument. Thomson provides us with “A Defense of Abortion” in which she makes the case for abortions to be generally permissible on the grounds that the mother has a right to choose what she does with her body and the fetus’ right to life does not include the use of another’s body. Marquis’ “Why Abortion is Immoral” makes the argument that abortion should be impermissible based on the fact that the fetus is being deprived of a better future. Both of these arguments are necessary in order to have a better understanding and view of the abortion dilemma. While they both provide great insight neither is strong enough to end the abortion argument so they are simply to provide
…show more content…
She mentions there are some cases in which an abortion is morally impermissible because it is unjust killing. Obviously Thomson is not going to support unjust killing because that is clearly an act that is morally impermissible in any case. She refers to late-term abortions as a clear case in which abortion is morally impermissible. She makes the example of a woman getting a late-term abortion simply to prevent herself from having to reschedule a trip. This is an example of an unjust killing of the fetus because the fetus’ life is surely more valuable than a trip that can be rescheduled and it is also just laziness on the part of the mother making the killing of the fetus completely unjustifiable therefore making the action morally impermissible. A late-term abortion is generally morally impermissible because at this point the fetus has developed into a person, is almost ready to be born, and the mother has already supported it this far to the point where getting an abortion would be unjust killing. Also Thomson states, “there may well be cases in which carrying the child to term requires only Minimally Decent Samaritanism of the mother, and this is a standard we must not fall below,” meaning that not all abortions are permissible and if giving birth only requires us to be minimally decent, then we should give birth to that child (Thomson, 8). Thomson also states that the mother does not have the right to ensure the death of its offspring, that means that the mother cannot kill her child if it were to be born after a failed abortion. Leaving open the possibility of impermissible abortions is a good move on Thomson’s part because there are always going to be extreme cases in which an abortion should be morally impermissible. To say that abortion is permissible in all cases would be irresponsible and would only lead to a loss of credibility for her entire argument because there is no clear cut answer for this
She mentions there are some cases in which an abortion is morally impermissible because it is unjust killing. Obviously Thomson is not going to support unjust killing because that is clearly an act that is morally impermissible in any case. She refers to late-term abortions as a clear case in which abortion is morally impermissible. She makes the example of a woman getting a late-term abortion simply to prevent herself from having to reschedule a trip. This is an example of an unjust killing of the fetus because the fetus’ life is surely more valuable than a trip that can be rescheduled and it is also just laziness on the part of the mother making the killing of the fetus completely unjustifiable therefore making the action morally impermissible. A late-term abortion is generally morally impermissible because at this point the fetus has developed into a person, is almost ready to be born, and the mother has already supported it this far to the point where getting an abortion would be unjust killing. Also Thomson states, “there may well be cases in which carrying the child to term requires only Minimally Decent Samaritanism of the mother, and this is a standard we must not fall below,” meaning that not all abortions are permissible and if giving birth only requires us to be minimally decent, then we should give birth to that child (Thomson, 8). Thomson also states that the mother does not have the right to ensure the death of its offspring, that means that the mother cannot kill her child if it were to be born after a failed abortion. Leaving open the possibility of impermissible abortions is a good move on Thomson’s part because there are always going to be extreme cases in which an abortion should be morally impermissible. To say that abortion is permissible in all cases would be irresponsible and would only lead to a loss of credibility for her entire argument because there is no clear cut answer for this