Analysis Of Judith Jevis Thomson's Article, A Defense Of Abortion

Superior Essays
In the article titled “A Defense of Abortion” published in 1971 in Wilby, author Judith Jevis Thomson strongly supports the idea of abortion. Thomson believes that abortion should not be considered immoral and every woman should be able to decide what she wants to do with her body. Thomson supports her arguments by using examples comparing the life of a fetus inside the mother’s womb to the life of a violinist without kidneys. Author John T. Noonan argues against abortion in his article titled “An Almost Absolute Value in History published in 1970 in The Morality of Abortion: Legal and Historical Perspectives. Noonan points out that the life of a fetus depends on the love and care of the mother. He makes his point by providing many logical …show more content…
She starts off by adding John Noonan’s opposite argument and begins to bring some examples and thoughts defending her idea and contradicting what the opposite side believes. Noonan and his supporters believe that a fetus is considered a human the moment it begins to form and grow in the mother’s womb. Thomson on the other side contradicts Noonan’s idea by saying that the idea of a fetus being human lacks support and there is not sufficient reasonable evidence to make that claim. In the article Thomson (1971) acknowledged that “Opponents of abortion commonly spent most of their time establishing that the fetus is a person, and hardly any time explaining the step from there to the impermissibility of abortion” (P. 48). With this quote in mind, Thomson successfully brings her point across attacking the opponent side with a reasonable quote and …show more content…
These scholarly articles are written for students and professors that can use the journals for academic purposes and debatable topics because they show the positive and negative side of abortion. Nevertheless, in their articles both authors use a high and persuasive tone to demonstrate and show their ideas. The authors try to persuade their audience on why abortion should or should not be immoral while providing evidence and strong examples. Both articles also use a strong connotation. For instance, in Noonan’s article Noonan defines the concept of humanity as an existence. On the other hand, Thomson also defines the concept of direct killing as a killing to end human life. To sum up, Thomson and Noonan have different views and beliefs on the concept of abortion. Thomson strongly supports the idea of abortion and the idea that women have the right to make a decision that best fits their body and care. On the other hand, Noonan has different views and opinion and thinks that every fetus deserves to be alive because a living fetus shapes humanity and draws new experiences. However, the ideas of both authors come together when both strongly believe that a new fetus deserves to have a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Therefore, she grants the opposing side that the fetus is a person. Thomson claims…

    • 1357 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. What is Noonan 's "Argument from Probabilities?" How does this argument work, and what does he think it implies about the morality or immorality of abortion? The argument from probabilities is not aimed at establishing an objective discontinuity which may be taken into account in moral disclosure.…

    • 1246 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In ‘A Defense of Abortion’, Thomson argues for the fact that there are certain cases where abortion is permissible and certain cases where abortion is impermissible. Thomson starts her argument by explaining that people contemplate their views on abortion by trying to determine a specific time period of when a fetus is considered a human being – some believe this is at contraception and others believe this is at birth. Whatever the case, Thomson uses an analogy of an acorn to demonstrate a pro-choice view. She relates that the development of an acorn into an oak tree does in fact not mean that acorns are oak trees. Much like how we cannot say that a recently fertilized egg is a human being.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the essay “Why Abortion is Immoral,” philosopher Don Marquis uses utilitarian principles to argue that “abortion is, except in rare cases, seriously immoral… [and] in the same category as killing an innocent human being” (223). However, he deliberately avoids relating his thesis to abortion in the specific contexts of rape, maternal death, and severe postpartum health complications. Thus, in my analysis of his claim, I plan on adopting Marquis’ utilitarian perspective to evaluate the permissibility of abortion in regard to these delicate scenarios. I will begin my paper by giving a brief summary of “Why Abortion is Immoral.”…

    • 1937 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thomson presents the anti-abortionist argument in the beginning of her paper. In order to get a better understanding of the argument I have taken the time to put it in numbered premise conclusion form: Every person has a right to life. The fetus is a person.…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abortion is the planned termination of a human pregnancy. Several philosophers and activists have argued over if it is permissible. The author of A Defense of Abortion, Judith Jarvis Thomson, is correct about her argument that abortion is permissible even if the fetus is a person. This is because a woman’s right to bodily autonomy, which, combined with the woman’s own right to life, takes precedent over a fetus’s right to life. Even if people claim that she gave the fetus permission to be there, she should not be forced into going against her right to bodily autonomy.…

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this analysis I will show you where I agree and disagree in this topic about abortion whether it’s right or wrong. In the two articles about abortion one written by Jeffrey Reiman and the other article written by Don Marquis who are two well-known philosophers. The main two sides in these article about abortion is…

    • 1030 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Bailey Washington Mr. Reynolds Philosophy MWF 8:30 1 December 2016 Thomson vs. Hursthouse In this paper I will be comparing and contrasting Thomsons A Defense of Abortion and Hursthouses Virtue Theory and Abortions. Also in my paper I will be sharing my opinion on abortion and which view I agree with.…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Permissibility of Abortion: Noonan V. Thompson The topic of abortion has been of much dispute throughout time. Some seeing abortion as the mother’s right to choice, others as murder. Most pro-life supporters argue that fetuses have the right to life and to aborting it is murder. Judith Thompson concedes that fetuses may have the right to life but that only gives the fetus a right to not be unjustly killed.…

    • 1238 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In today’s societies around the world, there is currently two factions of the highly controversial topic of abortion and whether it should be allowed or outlawed. These two factions on opposite sides are pro-choice and pro-life. Pro-choice supporters in essence believes a woman has the right to an abortion if she decides to do so. On the other hand, pro-life supporters believe the fetus is its own human being and has the right to live, thus an abortion cannot be performed on the woman. Judith Jarvis Thomson, a philosophy professor supports the right to an abortion in her paper, “A defense of Abortion” (186).…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abortion is an emotive and controversial topic that raises political, ethical and social debates. According to Dictionary.com, “abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, usually before the embryo or fetus is capable of independent life; most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy.” In this paper, I’ll explain the main legal and ethical issues surrounding abortions. Also, I will provide a case that has to deal with abortion. Ethical questions mainly stem from religious, social and professional dimensions.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abortion is wrong, but no one should be judged for the actions and/or decisions they make. Every human being that breathes, walks, and thinks, can decide what to do with their body. In this paper I agree with Don Marquis’s view of abortion. Abortion is wrong because it deprives the fetus from its future. In other words, abortion is wrong because killing a future child stops it from growing and making a difference to their lives.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    She suggests that because a pregnancy is such a great sacrifice, that, while women should carry a child to term after becoming pregnant, we cannot require them to do so. This argument also requires that the fetus’ right to life is subject to the mother’s whim and does not carry as much weight as the first two arguments. Thomson concludes the article by saying that she is not attempting to delineate the circumstances in which a pregnancy might be morally permissible and those in which it isn’t, but rather to make it clear that even if we consider a fetus to be a person, that abortion can still be morally permissible. This weakens her argument a great deal, instead of providing a proscriptive criterion to base the morality of abortion on, she simply provides what may be a series of fringe cases to establish that while abortion is normally wrong, it isn’t always so. Thomson’s argument on abortion is fundamentally deontological.…

    • 1880 Words
    • 8 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In my opinion, I don’t think I will have the courage to unplug the circulatory from my body because I don’t want to take a decision that will lead to the death of the famous violinist. I know all this situation is sat up by the music lovers but still I would not kill the guy because I just have been forced to be in such a situation in which my opinion has not been taken in the first place. Some might argue that I have been abducted, and I have been used as a mean to save someone’s life. Nevertheless, I will not take a decision to unplug the wires from my body. The case of abortion is as same as the case of the famous violinist except that a woman might have the option to be plugged to a baby or not.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The most intricate writers on the subject of abortion all believe that whether or not abortion is morally permissible stands or falls on whether or not a fetus is the sort of being whose life it is seriously wrong to end. The purpose of this paper isn’t to address the greater ethics of abortion such as abortion before implantation or abortion when the life of a woman is threatened by a pregnancy; rather I seek to address the general argument for the claim that the overwhelming majority of deliberate abortions are seriously immoral. I which to investigate further Don Marquis claim that I something is living its wrong to kill it. If this were true people that are dying from disease would believe that they loss a future and all the experiences that they would have had. The second one is that killing alone is wrong because it automatically takes away the greatest loss, which is their life.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays