PHIL 2103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Fetus
7 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Judith Jais Thoso’s A defese of aotio
• Thomson grants, for the sake of argument, that a fetus is a human being i.e. a person from the
moment of conception
• But she does’t thik that oe a get fo that peise to the olusio that, theefoe,
aotio is oall ipeissile
• But first how exactly is the anti abortion argument supposed to go? Thomson suggests the
following
o P1: every person has a right to life
o P2: a human fetus is a person
o C1: so a human fetus has a right to life
o P3: a peso’s ight to life is stoge tha a othe’s autoo oe he o od
o P4: is P3 then a human fetus may not be killed (that is abortion is impermissible)
o C2: a human fetus may not be killed (abortion is impermissible)
• The famous violinist example
o Anti-abortion argument can allow for abortions being permissible in cases of rape (but
the costs of doing so may be high)
o Anti-aotio aguet does ot euie hat Thoso alls the etee ie—the
view that abortion is impermissible even to save the othe’s life
o But some do argue for the extreme view
• Case 1: rape
• The doctrine of doing and allowing and killing vs letting die
o Because directly killing an innocent person is always and absolutely impermissible, an
abortion may not be performed
o As directly killing an innocent person is murder, and murder is always and absolutely
impermissible, an abortion may not be performed
o As oe’s dut to efai fo dietl killig a ioet peso is oe stiget tha
oe’s dut to keep a peso fo dig, an abortion my not be performed
o If oe’s ol optios ae dietl killig a ioet peso o lettig a peso die, oe
must prefer letting the person die, and thus an abortion may not be performed
o But Thomson says all of the above are false
• The problem with the notion of a right to life
o I a aguig ol that haig a ight to life does ot guaatee haig eithe a ight to
e gie the use o a ight to e alloed otiued use of aothe peso’s od—even
if oe eeds it fo life itself
o Having a ight to life aodig to Thopso osists i haig a ight ot to e killed
unjustly
o So the question for Thomson is this: is abortion unjust killing?
• Case 2: contraception
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