J.J. Thomson, "A Defense of Abortion"

Date

1971

What is the Violinist analogy's point?

Applies mostly to rape cases that resulted in pregnancy. If it's morally impermissible to have an abortion then it is morally impermissible to unplug yourself from the violinist.

The Violinist Analogy

Imagine this. You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped you, and last night the violinist's circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you, "Look, we're sorry the Society of Music Lovers did this to you--we would never have permitted it if we had known. But still, they did it, and the violinist is now plugged into you...To unplug you would be to kill him. But never mind, it's only for nine months. By then he will have recovered from his ailment, and can safely be unplugged from you." Is it morally incumbent on you to accede to this situation? No doubt it would be very nice of you if you did, a great kindness. But do you have to accede to it? ... I imagine you would regard [the idea that you have to accede to it] as outrageous, which suggests that something really is wrong with that plausible sounding argument I mentioned a moment ago.

Abortion cases to which the Violinist Analogy applies more straightforwardly

Rape cases

According to Thomson, cases where abortion is and is not morally justified

Rape: Abortion is not unjust killing. The fetus has no right to use the woman's body because the woman did not consent to become pregnant or did something that could result in pregnancy. Voluntary intercourse: Depends on whether not the woman was using contraceptives. Every time you drive your car you risk killing somebody. How is sex with contraceptives any different? Abortion to save the mother's life: Morally permissible. Self-defense, a special right over her own body. Tiny house and big baby analogy. Coat analogy.

Thomson's proposal about how to define the "right to life."

Right to live means one has the right not to be killed UNJUSTLY. Abortion is only wrong if it is unjust.

Main point of the article

She does not believe that the fetus is a person from conception; to believe so is to believe that an acorn is an oak tree. However, for the sake of the argument she concedes that the fetus is a person since conception with a right to life. Argues that even if the fetus is a person from conception, with a right to life, it does not mean that it is morally impermissible to kill it.

The Human Seeds Analogy

Suppose it were like this: people-seeds drift about in the air like pollen, and if you open your windows, one may drift in and take root in your carpets or upholstery. You don't want children, so you fix up your windows with fine mesh screens, the very best you can buy. As can happen, however, and on very, very rare occasions does happen, one of the screens is defective, and a seed drifts in and takes root. Does the person-plant who now develops have a right to the use of your house? Surely not--despite the fact that you voluntarily opened your windows, you knowingly kept carpets and upholstered furniture, and you knew that screens were sometimes defective. Someone may argue that you are responsible for its roo9ng, that it does have a right to your house, because after all you could have lived out your life with bare floors and furniture, or with sealed windows and doors. But this won't do--for by the same token anyone can avoid a pregnancy due to rape by having a hysterectomy, or anyway by never leaving home without a (reliable!) army.

What is The Human Seeds Analogy's point within Thomson's argument?

That intercourse with the proper precautions that results in pregnancy should allow abortion to be morally permissible. Human seeds floating in the air, crack in a window, tree grows in family room, right to cut it down.