Reading: A defense of abortion
In the first reading, Judith Jarvis Thompson evaluates various arguments against abortion from the perspective of ethical reasoning. The key idea conveyed in the text is that, even if the premise that an unborn child is a person is accepted, there are cases where abortion is not unethical. The author agrees that drawing the line at which a fetus becomes a person is not entirely possible and accepts the notion that any fetus is a person as the basis for her arguments. Thomson (1971) first focuses on the argument that every person has a right to life, which is prominent among people who are against abortions. Using an example of a famous violinist attached to another person’s body, she illustrates that a mother still has the right to abortion in cases where pregnancy resulted from rape.
Secondly, the author also considers the situation where the pregnancy threatens the mother’s life. Using the same example of a violinist, Thompson (1971) argues that a mother has the right to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy that threatens her health. Later on in the article, the author also contests the notion of the right to life, questioning its meaning. According to the author, this idea has a different impact on the abortion debate, depending on its meaning. As such, if the mother’s right to life includes a right to be given the necessities, then she can abort the pregnancy if it affects her access to them (Thompson, 1971).
Finally, the author discusses the difference between good Samaritans and minimally decent Samaritans. Distinguishing between these two models of behavior helps to show that abortion is more about the meaning behind a person’s decision rather than about the fetus’s life. Based on this premise, there are cases where it would be decent of the mother to carry the pregnancy to term, and there are also cases where abortion does not influence her moral status (Thompson, 1971). Overall, the text provides some compelling arguments about abortion and approaches the topic from multiple dimensions, thus providing a thorough evaluation of the various claims used in the debate on abortion.
Reading: Virtue theory and abortion
The second reading focuses on abortion from the viewpoint of virtue ethics. Virtue ethics considers the moral characteristics and qualities of people, using these to decide on whether or not their behaviors are ethical. Hursthouse (1991) also discusses the importance of the fetus’s status, concluding that it should not distract from other components of the issue. The author believes that it is much more important to understand how the status of the fetus impacts virtuous and nonvirtuous people, and what conclusions could be made. In other words, the author does not rule whether or not a fetus should be considered a person because, from the perspective of virtue ethics, the focus should be on people’s reactions to the fetus’s status.
Additionally, Hursthouse (1991) emphasizes the fact that pregnancy and abortion are unique experiences that are tied to women’s rights, and thus, virtues related to women should be considered to evaluate the issue. In the context of virtue ethics, moral people should believe parenthood and motherhood to be worthwhile experiences. From this viewpoint, rejecting this experience based on the common reasoning of not being ready or wanting a different life represents shallow, materialistic, and childish qualities.
However, the author acknowledges the various situations of women who face this decision and highlights that there are some exceptions. For instance, a mother of four would not become an immoral person for aborting her fifth child if she does so out of fear of impairing the lives of her other children (Hursthouse, 1991). Hence, the author conveys the idea that the morality of abortion in virtue ethics depends on the mother’s reasoning rather than on the act itself. This perspective is valuable to the contemporary debate regarding abortion, and thus the article contributes to the readers’ understanding of the problem.
References
Hursthouse, R. (1991). Virtue theory and abortion. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 20(3), 223-246.
Thompson, J. J. (1971). A defense of abortion. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 1(1), 47-66.