Thomson’s Defense of Abortion Essay

Thomson defines abortion as the termination of pregnancy either voluntarily or involuntarily. According to Ronald (2008), there are various defenses against abortion that Thomson has created basing her arguments on philosophical knowledge. Thomson points out that, one of the fundamental rights granted to human beings is right to life. According to her, this is the right that that the people who oppose abortion base their argument upon. According to Ronald, Thomson’s defenses challenges the arguments created against abortion using the idea of the right to life.Thomson’s Defense of Abortion Essay

According to Thomson, the major argument used by people who oppose abortion is that a fetus is considered as a person, from the moment of conception. Thomson acknowledges that it is very impossible for anyone to draw a line to distinguish where the life of a fetus starts. She also supports the notion that a fetus is a person even before its birth through the idea that it acquires human characteristics as early as nine weeks. Ronald (2004) points out that Thomson however challenges this argument by using various philosophical facts. She argues that a fetus can not be considered as a human being because it is just a newly fertilized ovum, a newly implanted clump of cells. This is because she compares a newly implanted fetus equal to acorn in an oak tree, which is not considered a tree till it matures up.

Ronald (2008), points out that Thomson uses the illustration of a violinist to make her arguments more clear. Through this illustration she raises many defenses against pregnancy on the issue of right to life. In this experiment the music lovers kidnaps a person and without his or her knowledge starts using his or her kidneys to support the life of the dying violinist suffering from kidney failure. Thomson uses the aspect of kidnapping to stand for rape that leads to pregnancy. According to her, the kidnapped person didn’t give the violinist any right to use his or her body and hence has every right to detach himself or herself from him. However Thomson explains that detaching him or herself, the kidnapped person will be denying the violinist the right to life.Thomson’s Defense of Abortion Essay