A Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson

“A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson is an excellent essay because the author portrays the many controversies surrounding abortion. Throughout the essay Thomson uses logic and reasoning to argue that abortion is not always morally impermissible and takes into consideration each individual’s right to life and a right to decide what happens to ones own body. Thomson highly values the concept of autonomy and believes that should never be taken away from anyone. One premise she uses to show that abortion is not always impermissible is in the case of rape the fetus is comparable to a parasite living off the mother’s body without consent. However, I believe that this is a dramatization since the unborn child is directly related to the

With this burglary example the person having their house broken into purchased the best bars money can buy but the burglar still gets in through a defect in the bars. Similar to a defect in birth control, rare but still happens, is how the author gets her point across to show just how unjust this treatment is to any individual having an unfortunate event like this becoming a moral responsibility. Then the author stretches the hypothetical situation even more by introducing an example where people seeds exist and one can fly into ones house at anytime taking root in their carpet. This is similar to the burglary example except now that person would have to care for the child after no action of theirs caused this unfortunate event. What Thomson is trying to persuade the reader of is that abortion is sometimes permissible in certain situations and says a law that would prohibit “a sick and desperately frightened fourteen-year-old schoolgirl, pregnant due to rape, may of course choose abortion, and that any law which rules this out is an insane