Summary: A Defense Of Abortion

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The topic of abortion is a debate that was always prominent, but today it is even more discussed due to the upcoming election. Each of the candidates running to become the next president of the United States has different arguments about abortion and whether it should be legal or not. Also, parts of these arguments consists of in what point of pregnancy can abortion still be permissible? A Defense of Abortion, written by Judith Jarvis Thomson supports the right of abortion. She grants the premises of her opponents and then contravenes them through analogies of different situations. After analyzing and evaluating both sides of this debate, I side with Thomson’s argument that her right to life is to not be killed unjustly, and the right to abortion …show more content…
The question that develops from that is “is the mother is compelled to give birth to this child because the fetus has a right to life?” According to Thomson, the mother also has the right to life. This statement contradicts the entire argument in the situation that is being discussed in this entire read: the fetus has the right to life. How does one determine whose life has a greater right and value than the other? It is my philosophy that the mother of the unborn child (fetus) can choose whether or not she wants to undergo abortion. She is trying to protect herself and her own right to life, making abortion her right to choose. When Thomson brings up another case such as the violinist one, it makes me think. If I chose to save the violinist with a risk to end up harming/killing myself would I still be obligated to help the violinist? Even if there was a slight chance for something to go wrong and high chance for the violinist to be saved; who has the greater right to life? Again, this cannot be …show more content…
Some people do not realize that one can still become pregnant while using condoms, birth control pills, or other contraceptives in the market. I strongly agree with Thomson when she argues that abortion should be an option when precautions are taken to avoid the pregnancy. The opposing argument can be the same as before- if two people are having sex, they should still be aware of the results of what can happen; even when practicing safe sex. They should be able to acknowledge the fetus’ right to life. I can relate this back to what I previously stated about the woman’s right to autonomy. She can still make the decision on what she wants to happen to her body and explore what her options are. Another analogy Thomson uses is “people-seeds”. This could be something like pollen; you can take as many precautions as you want from avoiding pollen to get into your house, but there is always still a way. What if “people-seeds” or pollen flies in through your window and plants itself onto your carpet. The woman takes as many precautions as possible, such as buying the most protective screen there is so she does not get any “pollen” in. The screen ends up being defective and a seed gets in and implants into the carpet. She can still try and do whatever is possible to clean the carpet because she had already taken so many

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