Deck 10: A Defense of Abortion

Question 1

Judith Jarvis Thomson's violinist case is a clear example of a person with a right to life and a person who could use his body to save that person. But maybe this case is different from abortion in a morally relevant way. In your essay, consider the following question: what would have to be true for Thomson to be right about the violinist case and wrong about the abortion case? In other words, develop an objection to Thomson that says that there is a morally relevant difference between the violinist case and the abortion case.

Answer 1

Outline a moral feature that, if true, would make the violinist case morally different from abortion.
Defend an objection to Thomspon that uses this moral feature to say that she's right about the violinist but wrong about abortion-if only insofar as she compares it to the violinist case.

Question 2

Judith Jarvis Thomson imagines a world where pregnancy only lasts an hour. She says that if a woman refused to carry through with a pregnancy in this imaginary world, "we should conclude that she is self-centered, callous, indecent, but not unjust, if she refuses. The complaints are no less grave; they are just different." What is the difference between being callous and indecent versus being unjust? What does it mean to say that complaining about someone being callous and indecent and complaining about someone being unjust are complaints that are equally as serious as each other? If it's true that both complaints are very serious, does this change the way that we should think about certain abortions?

Answer 2

Make a distinction between callousness or indecency and injustice, explaining how both are serious moral complaints.
Consider whether the complaint of callousness and indecency changes the way that we should think about the question of abortion.

Question 3

Consider the following cases: a newborn infant and its mother are alone on an island with plenty of food and water; a sibling needs a kidney transplant and you are the only match; a stranger is asking for shelter in your warm house and since it's freezing you know she will die if you refuse. What would Judith Jarvis Thomson say about what the person equipped to help should do in each case? What about what the person must do in each of these situations?

Answer 3

Go through each of these imagined cases, making a distinction (where it's applicable) between what a person should do in each case and what a person must do in each case, applying Thomson's understanding of ought and obligation to each.

Question 4

When making her argument, Thomson agrees to grant what for the sake of argument?

A) That the fetus is a person from the moment of conception
B) That it is impossible to have meaningful conversations about abortion with men
C) That abortion is murder of an unborn baby or child
D) That women have a special moral relationship to unborn children
E) That abortion is a human rights issue

Question 5

What is the point of Thomson's violinist example?

A) It would be unjust for you to unplug yourself from the violinist
B) Friends don't have a right to act inappropriately on each other's behalf
C) It is reasonable to expect for things like this to happen in real life
D) It's outrageous to expect for you to stay plugged into the violinist
E) There are many cases where we depend upon each other's bodies for life

Question 6

What is the "extreme view" regarding abortion?

A) Abortion is the best moral option with regard to pregnancy
B) Abortion is permissible always and everywhere
C) Abortion is neither permissible nor impermissible
D) Abortion is impermissible only in the case of rape or incest
E) Abortion is impermissible even to save the mother's life

Question 7

Thomson thinks it is problematic that many discussions about abortion focus on what a third party, like a doctor, is allowed to do when asked to perform an abortion. Why?

A) To ignore the woman's role in abortion is to relegate her into the sphere of the amoral
B) To focus on doctors is to bring men into a conversation about what should only be a women's issue
C) To treat the matter in this way is to refuse to grant to the mother the status of person
D) To treat the matter in this way is to ignore basic, biological facts about fetal development and when life begins
E) To treat the matter in this way puts undue emphasis on pregnancy as a medical condition

Question 8

What is the point of Thomson's example where Jones steals Smith's coat that both men need to keep themselves from freezing?

A) Jones has the moral right to steal Smith's coat if that is his only means of survival
B) Someone with the job of securing people's rights both can and should help Smith
C) It would be cold, cruel, and callous for Smith to refuse his coat to Jones
D) Everyone should have the right to refuse to intervene in Jones and Smith's private conflict
E) Justice demands that Jones and Smith find a way to both share the coat

Question 9

Thomson argues that if I am sick unto death, and the only thing that will save my life is the touch of Henry Fonda's cool hand on my fevered brow, then ________:

A) Someone should make an effort to secure my rights by getting Henry Fonda to place his cool hand on my fevered brow
B) I have the moral right to demand that Henry Fonda place his cool hand on my fevered brow
C) A doctor should intervene on my behalf to seek out a cure to my unlikely sickness
D) Henry Fonda is obligated to place his cool hand on my fevered brow if he standing across the room from me
E) All the same, I have no right to be given the touch of Henry Fonda's cool hand on my fevered brow

Question 10

What does Thomson think that we should say about the person who leaves his window open and the innocent person who falls in through the window?

A) The man is responsible for the fall if he didn't put bars over his window
B) The man has an obligation to remove the innocent person from his house
C) Some third party has a responsibility to intervene in the subsequent conflict
D) The innocent person does not have a right to the man's house
E) The innocent person has a right to recover from her fall in the man's house

Question 11

Thomson invites her reader to imagine a case where pregnancy lasts an hour and constituted no threat to life or health. Which of the following statements would NOT apply to this situation, according to Thomson?

A) The unborn person has a right to use the woman's body in this case
B) She ought to allow the unborn person to use her body for an hour
C) It is not unjust for the woman to refuse to continue the pregnancy for one hour
D) It would be indecent to refuse to continue the pregnancy for one hour
E) None of these statements apply to this situation

Question 12

Thomson argues that it would be shocking if what turned out to be true about people's rights?

A) Rights only start to have moral weight when people are outside of women's wombs
B) Rights don't protect people when according these rights is incredibly easy to do
C) Rights are a legal fiction invented to ensure peace and harmony
D) Rights have to be fought for in order to be respected and accorded to those who have them
E) Rights fade away and disappear as it gets harder to accord people's rights to them

Question 13

Throughout her essay, Thomson offers a number of illustrations that help to support her arguments. Which of the following is NOT one of her examples?

A) A boy refusing to share chocolates with his brother
B) The Society of Plant Lovers demanding protection for acorns
C) People-seeds drifting around in the air like pollen
D) A person in a very tiny house with a rapidly growing child
E) A burglar climbing in through an open window