Moral status of the fetus and the permissibility of abortion: a contractarian response to Thomson's violinist thought experiment.

Journal of Medical Ethics
Matthew John Minehan

Abstract

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.

References

Dec 29, 2000·Journal of Medical Ethics·E Wiland
Sep 28, 2001·Journal of Medical Ethics·R Gillon
Jul 23, 2005·The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy·Russell DiSilvestro
Jan 13, 2011·Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics : CQ : the International Journal of Healthcare Ethics Committees·David M Shaw
Apr 21, 2020·Journal of Fish Biology·Faviel A López-RomeroJürgen Kriwet

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Citations

Jun 27, 2021·Journal of Medical Ethics·Joona Räsänen

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