A Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson

Callahan would suggest that Lisa continues the pregnancy, as she does not have a right to control this other body that is dependent on her, especially since it is fully developed. The act of terminating the late pregnancy would be, according to Callahan, comparable to murdering a powerless or immature person. Lisa would need to consider herself as not just a single unit and understand that a human is developed within her care. Though it might seem like a quick and “easy” solution to terminate if the fetus was just an embryo, the fact that Lisa is carrying a six-month-old fetus makes it more morally serious and hard. Moreover, Lisa has a moral obligation to take care of this life form.

In my paper I am discussing the debate of abortion in terms of induced, which is the intentional termination of pregnancy through drugs or surgery, and therapeutic, that is the abortion performed to preserve the life and health of the mother. In this paper, I take a strong stance against the acceptance of abortion both legally and socially. The main arguments used against pro-life (support for the abolishment of abortion), is based on the valuing of life. To those who are pro-choice (liberals, etc.), argue that it is the woman’s choice to decide whether or not to have an abortion based on the grounds of valuing her life. Her life in the present, and her life in the future, as maybe having a child can hinder her future goals, and plans.

Is not abortion murdering a baby in the comfortable and safe womb of the mother? This issue has caused many discussions, because even though it is obvious that you are killing a baby, people do not consider it as murder. Abortion is painfully taking a baby´s right to live just because the embryos are not considered human beings. God created us in his image,which gives us a value, and we do not determine if a baby has the right to live based on how we think humans are. All humans have thought on the idea of abortion, and how painful that is to a baby.

Rosalind Hursthouse in her paper Virtue Theory and Abortion, handles with the moral standpoint of abortion from a virtue ethics perspective. Her research is directed towards investigating whether or not an abortion is something a virtuous person would do. Hursthouse examines the morally relevant considerations and in so doing, she rejects the standard questions used to determine the morality of an abortion such as the status of the fetus, and the rights of a women. The morally relevant considerations she sees fit to assess the moral legitimacy of an abortion are concerns with family relationship, personal circumstance, and basic biological facts. Through her considerations, Hurthouses account of virtue ethics gives us adequate moral advice in regards to the question of abortion.

Written Assignment #6 In Judith Jarvis Thompson’s article, A Defense of Abortion, where Thompson discusses argues that abortion is not always permissible, but permissible in certain circumstances; such as, the abortion is done attempt to save the mother’s life and in cases of rape. However, I do not believe provides a solid enough argument in stating that abortion is immoral in nearly all circumstances. In this argument, Thompson takes on the perceptive that the fetus is a living person.

In the article, the author Valarie Tarico is for abortion. She believes abortion is right and men and women should make a family however they want to make it. She says that it is one of the biggest decisions in life to bring a child into the world. She then goes on and explains ten reasons why she is for abortion. Her reasons for abortion are; limiting the amount of time a woman has a child is “female empowerment and equality”, pregnancies are better when they are spaced out, parenting is a hard job, having a child that was expected is better for couples, the process of reproduction is not perfect, morality is about the health of those who can feel, birth control can be ineffective, she believes in fresh starts, people have the responsibility

Thompson believes that every person has complete control over their own bodies, and that they are responsible to what happens to it, so her argument is that abortion is not morally wrong but its needed to protect oneself from harm. For example, ectopic pregnancies happen when fertilization of an egg occurs anywhere else rather than in the uterus, which is in an abnormal place, now this pregnancy could be deadly to the mother, so an abortion is needed to save the mother’s life, because she has the right to protect her own life, even if it means to kill a

Abortion is one of the most controversial topics of today’s society. Each side in this seemingly never ending debate is very passionate in their opinions and not afraid to publicise them. The anti-abortion (pro-life) view is that getting an abortion is wrong. In contrast, people who are pro-choice believe that women have the choice to keep the baby or not. Ultimately, the decision to end a pregnancy shouldn’t be taken lightly, but should be the woman’s choice, and no one else’s.

The point of Christie’s article was not to convince others that abortion is wrong and that it should be stopped, but rather to persuade others to consider the route of adoption if possible. Because adoption is highly emotional and focused on relationships, there are not many statistics and hard facts that can persuade others to adopt, rather there are personal stories, like Christie’s, that change perspectives and motivate people to choose adoption over abortion as well as inspire families to adopt children in

Michael Tooley takes a liberal approach on abortion. He believes that killing a fetus is morally acceptable. He debates that abortion during any stage of pregnancy should be accepted with his reason being that a fetus does not have “a serious right to life”. In his work "Abortion and Infanticide", he discuss "what characteristics [a fetus] must have in order to be considered a person." He believes that a person’s identity is progressively attained, and the fetus is not a person until birth.

Abortion is a contraversal subject that is brought up in many conversations today, frorn lay person to presidental canadites. This topic has many view points considering whether or not the fetus is human, and if so whether or not it has a right to life. Though a heavily debated issue. many would rather sweep this subject under the rug. Abortion itself is nothing to be ignored though.

I believe that this subject gives adults the opportunity to think about why they have decided to want another human being in their life. Abortion is not negative at all because there is no active life that is being destroyed. It would be a positive thing if others could agree and support abortion instead of thinking it is a death penalty towards fetuses. Back in the day, it didn’t matter if abortion was illegal or not women still had the intentions of getting rid of their pregnancy if needed to so that they can be “safe”. They did not go to safe places to get their operation done though.

Secondly, Pro-Life advocates make the argument that abortion should not be used because adoption is a perfectly good alternative. This is imply a false statement because abortion and adoption are two extremely different actions. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy and adoption is the giving away of a child for personal reasons. In one case the baby is definitely alive, adoption, and in the other case it is debatable whether the fetus is alive or not, abortion. Additionally, “very few women who give birth choose to give up their babies - less than 3% of white unmarried women and less than 2% of black unmarried women” (Lowen, Linda).

In “A Defense for Abortion,” Judith Jarvis Thomson grants those who are against abortion the right that personhood starts at conception but goes on to argue for the permissibility of abortion by complicating the personhood argument. In this paper I will argue for the defense of abortion by first explaining Thomson’s famous violinist case, then I will criticize her argument. Thomson begins laying out her argument by first describing the main focus when interpreting if abortion is permissible or not. This is if the fetus is a person bearing full rights, and at what point is it considered a person (Thomson, 48).

I will argue that abortion is wrong and shouldn’t be allowed. I am then considered pro-life. To help support me I could use information from the Roe Vs. Wade Abortion court case in 1973. Abortion is an issue because you are taking an innocent fetuses life.