3 Thompson on abortion slides

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Mount Holyoke College *

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Philosophy

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Oct 30, 2023

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Judith Jarvis Thompson: A defense of abortion
Agenda: 1. Judith Jarvis Thompson herself. 2. Reading philosophy. 3. What is the story? 4. What is the point of the story?
Judith Jarvis Thompson Was at MIT. Tough, helpful. Professors Vavova and Emery knew her well. She sometimes visited the valley Politically Conservative.
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Reading Philosophy It is not like reading a Mystery. If you read it like a Mystery, it will be one. You'll need to concentrate. Read somewhere quiet. You can't read it quickly.
What philosophy does It presents a case for believing something. It's trying to persuade you. It uses some facts, but mostly focuses on arguments. In philosophy, an argument is not a fight. It is supposed to be rational. Not (for example) an appeal to emotions, nor an attack on persons believing the reverse, nor citing the benefits of possessing a particular belief.
Three Questions: 1. What is the author's conclusion ? what is he or she trying to get me to believe? 2. Why does the author think I ought to believe that thing? What arguments are being presented? 3. Is there anything wrong with the case being presented? What might be said against it?
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The reading we did Its conclusion is clear: There is nothing morally wrong with abortion. Her argument concerns a particular example , a thought experiment .
What is the thought experiment?
What is the Point of the story?
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Some things to notice The story is unrealistic. But so are other thought experiments, for example in physics. The point of the story is to isolate a feature of the debate from other, irrelevant factors. The violinist is obviously a person, in as full a sense as anyone can be. And his life depends upon the body of the kidnapped person...
But... It is still permissible to detach the violinist. So... Even if the fetus (or baby) is a person, abortion is still morally permissible The permissibility of abortion does not depend upon whether the fetus is a person or not. It depends only on the requirement that people be allowed to determine what happens in and to their own bodies.
Thompson is replying to this: “Being pregnant can be very inconvenient and occasionally results in long-lasting medical problems.” “The woman has some rights to avoid these inconveniences and problems, but ...they aren't nearly as important as the right that the fetus/baby has to life itself.” “Abortion is wrong because killing a person is more wrong than inconveniencing yourself for a while.”
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What Thompson's trying to do She's trying to show that, even for a full person with a right to life, That person does not have the right to make use of someone else’s body Even when that other body is necessary for life. The violinist still has a right to life, but that right doesn't show that abortion is wrong because it doesn't show that unplugging the violinist is wrong.
Something to notice: There are three useful categories for the morality of an action: 1. The action is immoral. It is wrong to perform it. 2. The action is not immoral, but it is not required either. There's noting morally wrong with doing it, but there needn't be anything morally right about doing it either. 3. The action is morally obligatory . It would be wrong not to do the action.
Thompson's position Abortion is in the second category, neither wrong nor obligatory. There is nothing morally blameworthy about having an abortion, And there could be, in some circumstances, something morally praiseworthy in deciding not to. We can say it is supererogatory – going beyond requirements – to keep the famous violinist alive.
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How does the argument work? On what assumptions or premises does it depend? Are these assumptions true? Is there anything Thompson is assuming that she doesn't state explicitly? Even if the assumptions are true, does the conclusion she draws really follow?
Here's a premise she uses: Being pregnant when you don't want to be is morally analogous to being kidnapped and attached to another person (at least if we grant, for the sake of argument, that the fetus/baby is a person.) Is that really true? In what sense is it true ? Under what circumstances? In what circumstances is it false?
Pregnancy in the case of rape The woman was kidnapped in this case, which seems analogous to rape. So maybe the pro-Life people can say: “Abortion is wrong in the case of accidental pregnancy during consensual sex.” “But abortion isn't wrong after rape” “(abortion isn't wrong, also, when the baby is going to die before birth anyway, for example from serious genetic diseases.)”
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Thompson's first reply: This is very odd. Does your right to life depend upon how your life got started? You have a right to life if your mother consented to sex, but not if she didn't? Surely, instead, you have a right to life because you are alive , no matter how you got that way or who wanted it. The pro-Lifer really ought not to concede that abortion is O.K. after rape.
All the same... The pro-life side will say (probably): “If you get pregnant in the case of consensual sex then you deliberately did something that you knew might have this result” “So you're responsible for the consequences. It might be inconvenient or distressing to give birth, but you should have thought of that when you decided to have sex.” “The baby's right to life now overrides your convenience.”
Second reply: the burglar analogy Consensual sex resulting in pregnancy is like opening a window of your house for fresh air, and having a burglar come through it. Maybe you are partly responsible for the burglary, but that doesn't give the burglar any right to use your house and steal your stuff! No more does having consensual sex give the fetus a right to use your body for its own purposes, even if it does have a right to life.
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Third reply: People seeds Suppose people grew from seeds that drifted in the air through the windows. You don't want them growing in your house, so you install screens. But one of the screens fails, and a people-seed starts growing in the carpet. Now you opened the window, you knew that the screens sometimes fail. So bad luck. You knew what might happen. Must you not uproot the person-seed?
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What is the people-seed case like? What's the point of the people-seed example? In terms of sex resulting in pregnancy, what do the screens correspond to?
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Fisher’s example You plan a trip for meditation and solitude to a very remote cabin with plenty of food for emergencies. Utterly exhausted, a stranger arrives just after you get there. He's been kidnapped and escaped. If you don't let him in he will certainly die. It will take nine months before you can both get out together. There's enough food etc. for both of you but it's very inconvenient.
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Why is Religion ignored? Not everyone is religious. And not all religions oppose abortion. Most religious pro-life people think that God disapproves of abortion for a reason , not arbitrarily. So we discuss the reason, not God. The bible is highly questionable as an anti- abortion source. God causes deaths of fetuses as punishment (Hosea 9:10-16). He approves of some who deliberately cause abortions (2 Kings 15:16). But it’s ambiguous.
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For Next Time: Read Don Marquis “Why Abortion is Immoral”. Pages 706-712
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