Philosophy 237 Actual Exam 1 Thomson Roe v Wade Directions Write your last name in the top left corner of the test followed by your first name Failure to do so will lower your test score one point Write your TA s name under your own name Failure to do so will lead to a point being subtracted from your grade Circle the letter that you think is the correct answer for each multiple choice question If you change your answer be sure to cross out your old answer and clearly mark the new answer Write true or false to the LEFT of each true false question Do no write in cursive Failure to do so will lead to a point reduction Multiple Choice Questions 3 Points Each 1 If killing and letting die are morally equivalent then a where one is permissible so also is the other b they are both always permissible c they are both always wrong d they can t be compared because they are qualitatively different 2 Which of the following is a candidate for being a morally relevant difference between the fetus and the violinist a The violinist is a stranger while the fetus is the pregnant woman s child b The violinist will be allowed to die while the fetus is killed c Supporting the violinist is typically a greater burden than carrying the fetus d All of the above 3 Thomson maintains that women who willingly gestate a fetus for nine months are a obligated to support the violinist for nine months b Good Samaritans c implicitly accepting responsibility to raise the baby after birth d pro lifers who favor an abortion ban 4 Thomson argues that if a late abortion is indecent then it is a unjust b murder but excusable like a crime of passion c a vice but not unjust d a violation of the fetus s right to life 5 Thomson uses the broken screen and the people seeds thought experiment to defend abortion in a pregnancies resulting from rape b life threatening pregnancies c pregnancies due to consensual sex and failed contraception d all of the above 1 6 Thomson believes that a MD can help a woman abort a life threatening pregnancy because a the fetus will die anyway b the fetus forfeits its right to life when it attacks the mother c the fetus is mindless and won t feel pain or know what it is deprived of by an early death d the fetus is in her body which she owns 7 Thomson would agree with which part of the Supreme Court s decision in Roe v Wade a abortion would be impermissible if the fetus is a legal person b the woman s right to control her body can be curtailed after the 2nd trimester c it is unjust to prohibit abortion when the woman s life is in danger d abortion is best defended on the grounds of a right to privacy 8 Pro lifers can avoid the charge of inconsistency when they judge it true that it is permissible to disconnect the violinist but false that it is permissible to abort by a showing that there is a morally relevant difference between the two scenarios b pointing out there is distortional feature in the violinist scenario c pointing out that it is impermissible to rotate and kill the kid on the damaged roof d All of the above 9 Thomson wrote her defense of abortion a in support of the Supreme Court s decision in Roe v Wade b before Roe v Wade was decided c to provide a justification for the Supreme Court s reliance on viability as an abortion cut off point d because she disagreed with the Supreme Court s emphasis on a right to privacy in Roe v Wade9 10 The Supreme Court ruled in Roe v Wade that abortion after viability a is illegal because the state s interest in potential life outweighs the women s right to privacy b could be made illegal by the states but need not be c is illegal except in cases of rape and incest d could be made illegal by the states because the fetus becomes a person in the third trimester 11 A good thought experiment enables us to isolate and compare moral principles without other morally relevant features interfering with the comparisons True False Questions 2 12 Thomson believes that if pro lifers can establish that the fetus is both a person and has a right to life then they have won the abortion debate 13 Pro lifers will usually accept that a woman has a right to control her own body as long as her control does not threaten the fetus s life 14 If the violinist and pregnancy scenarios are analogous in the morally relevant ways but our responses to them are inconsistent then we should try to explain one of our reactions as due to a distortional feature If JT s defense of abortion fails and persons cannot be justly aborted then a strategy for abortion defenders is to provide a metaphysical argument that fetuses are only potential persons with less value than persons 16 Pro life critics of Thomson maintain that a distortional feature in her thought experiment is that supporting the typical fetus is less of a physical burden than nine months in bed aiding the violinist 17 A pair of inconsistent claims cannot both be true 18 If there are no morally relevant differences between the violinist and abortion cases then pro lifers can become consistent by abandoning their belief in the permissibility of disconnecting the violinist 19 Thomson uses the people seeds thought experiment to support her claim that there is a right to abortion even when the fetus is a result of consensual sex 20 The Responsibility Objection to Thomson s argument is based on the claim that a woman who engaged in consensual sex has a responsibility to support the fetus whose needs are a result of her choices 21 Thomson uses the expanding child thought experiment to show that a third party can take the side of the woman whose life is threatened by carrying the fetus 22 A pro lifer might claim a morally relevant disanalogy between the fetus and the violinist is that the fetus is a family member to whom the mother has a special obligation while the violinist is a stranger 23 Thomson believes that people typically maintain that killing is morally far worse than letting die because they are assuming scenarios where the deaths involve differences in burdens and intentions 24 The Supreme Court claimed that the manner in which the Constitution used person and the common law punishments for abortion suggest that the fetus has never been considered a person in American Legal history 25 The Supreme Court found an unwritten right to privacy emanating from the 14th amendment 3 4