Thompson Thompson preliminaries Defends the moderate pro abortionist position She allows for sake of the argument that a fetus is a person She argues that the standard argument where this is assumed nevertheless still fails P1 the fetus is a person and every person has a tight to life P2 there for the fetus has a right to life P3 The mother has a right to decide what happens to her body P4 The fetus s tight to life outweighs the mothers right to decide what happens to her body C There for abortion is morally impermissible Thompson argues that abortion is something permissible When abortion is okay to save the mother In cases of rape 65 Allows for the sake of the argument that a fetus is a person But she argues that people who believe co commit the For example A neonate is a person But a neonate is very similar to a fetus prior to birth Which is in turn is similar to a fetus in the beginning of the 8th month and so on There is no way to draw a sharp line when a fetus stops being a person if the neonate is a person then we can treat the zygote as a person Thompson uses the violinist case to argue against the Standard argument You fins yourself hooked up to a famous unconscious violinist If he cant use your kidneys for nine months he will die You did not agree to this but were forces to be in this situation The violinist is perfectly innocent because he has been unconscious The anti abortionists can argue that the case of rape is an exception But Thompson points out that this is problematic because it assumes that just because a fetus is the result of rape it either does not have a right to life Abortion is impermissible even to save the mom The view rests on ta distinction between killing and letting die P1 Actively killing an innocent person is worse than letting and innocent person die P2 We have a stronger duty not to kill an innocent person than we so to prevent the death of an innocent person C We have a stronger duty to not kill a fetus than we do to prevent the death of his mother There s a gigantic rapidly growing child and unless you kill it first its going to kill you This is permissible Suppose the fetus does not threaten the mother s life Is abortion then impermissible Here the standard argument seems to be quite powerful apart form the mothers right to life no other right s are powerful enough to state a new argument Thompson then argues the right to life is not a simple thing and cannot be used as sweepingly to provide reasons to abort
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