Thomson Arguments Against Abortion

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Judith Jarvis Thomson, the author of this article, provides several defenses for abortion, but makes it crystal clear that possessing the right to abort does not equal to the right to kill. A fetus may be seen as an innocent human being with the right to live, but there are plenty of reasons why abortion may be justified. This is an issue that anti-abortion protestors seem to overlook. Pro-life advocates seem to sympathize and empathize with a pregnant woman’s right to decide whether motherhood is just for herself and just for society. Human development is the premise for Pro-Life advocates. This group believes that a fetus is a human being at the moment of conception. However, If a fetus has a right to life, then there are no circumstances whereby an abortion is justified. This argument is false since there are situations such as rape and the mother’s health that may …show more content…

She may have conceived a fetus as a result of a rape or due to contraceptive malfunctioning. If the fetus cannot survive outside of the womb, it is not a human and; therefore, does not have the right to life. It is ultimately the woman’s decision as to whether she can care for the fetus resulting in the fetus becoming a human. It is immoral for anyone else to decide otherwise. During pregnancy, a woman’s body is simply the host for the fetus. In the case of rape, the fetus can be regarded as a leech or other parasitic organism such as a tapeworm, starving the host mother from nutrients that she would otherwise have not willingly shared. Although it takes both sperm and ovum to create a fetus, men are not held responsible for taking care of the fetus once it is born. They simply are required to provide monetary support if a court orders them to do so. There is nothing immoral about a woman, who has to decide what she should do about the living creature inside her, and men has no right in interfering with her