PHI 2396 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Judith Jarvis Thomson, Fetus, Thought Experiment
14 Dec 2017
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Spontaneous abortion: abortion due to natural causes, commonly referred to as a miscarriage. Therapeutic abortion: abortion performed to preserve the life or health of the mother. Thompson argued that even if a fetus is a person at conception, at least some abortions could still be morally permissible. But there is a suppressed premise needed to make the argument work because the mother also has a right to her own body (bodily integrity). The right to life is not an absolute right. Therefore in some cases abortion is morally permissible. First identifies what it is that makes murder wrong, then applies this understanding to the case of abortion. He argues that murdering someone is wrong because it robs him or her of a future a loss of all possible experiences, activities, projects and enjoyments . Abortion is almost always wrong because it deprives the fetus of all prospects of such future experiencing and being.
