RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Moral status of the fetus and the permissibility of abortion: a contractarian response to Thomson’s violinist thought experiment
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 407
OP 410
DO 10.1136/medethics-2020-106810
VO 48
IS 6
A1 Minehan, Matthew John
YR 2022
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/48/6/407.abstract
AB Judith Jarvis Thomson famously argued that abortion is permissible even if we accept that a fetus qualifies as a person and possesses a right to life. The current paper presents two arguments that undermine Thomson’s position. First, the paper sketches a contractarian argument that explores Thomson’s violinist thought experiment from behind a veil of ignorance, which suggests that if we had an equal likelihood of being an unwanted fetus and a pregnant woman, it would be rational for us to oppose abortion. Second, the paper discusses the hypothetical self-aborting fetus, a thought experiment that reverses the dependence relationship between a woman and a fetus. It is argued that in this scenario, where fetuses have agency of their own, Thomson’s position would counterintuitively prohibit a woman from temporarily curtailing the freedom of her fetus even to save her own life.There are no data in this work