{"id":50936,"date":"2014-06-23T13:46:22","date_gmt":"2014-06-23T17:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=50936"},"modified":"2014-06-23T19:16:10","modified_gmt":"2014-06-23T23:16:10","slug":"pulling-the-plug-on-the-violinist-argument-for-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pulling-the-plug-on-the-violinist-argument-for-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Pulling the plug on the violinist argument for abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

For all pro-lifers have done to debunk the \u201cbodily autonomy\u201d argument for abortion<\/a>\u2014the idea that abortion is merely exercising a pregnant woman\u2019s absolute right to revoke her unborn son or daughter\u2019s \u201cpermission\u201d to use her body whenever, however, and why-ever she wants\u2014it occurs to me there\u2019s one aspect of it we’ve been neglecting.<\/p>\n

The violinist argument comes from Judith Jarvis Thomson\u2019s 1971 Philosophy<\/em> & Public Affairs<\/em> essay \u201cA Defense of Abortion<\/a>,\u201d which \u201cgrant[s] that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception,\u201d yet justifies its destruction anyway by drawing an infamous analogy:<\/p>\n

You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped you, and last night the violinist’s circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you, “Look, we’re sorry the Society of Music Lovers did this to you–we would never have permitted it if we had known. But still, they did it, and the violinist is now plugged into you. To unplug you would be to kill him. But never mind, it’s only for nine months.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From this harrowing scenario, we\u2019re meant to realize that killing a fetus is no more objectionable than unplugging yourself from the violinist would be.<\/p>\n

In response, pro-lifers usually run down the many differences between pregnancy and Thomson\u2019s scenario, including but not limited to (a) parents naturally owing more to kin than they do strangers, (b) a fetus\u2019s natural right to the natural process gestating him or her, (c) the difference between withholding aid as opposed to directly applying lethal force, and (d) the fact that to be truly analogous to the vast majority of pregnancies, the kidney donor would have had to both cause<\/em> the violinist\u2019s kidney ailment and<\/em> hook himself<\/em> to<\/em> the violinist.<\/p>\n

All of that is true and valuable. It\u2019s also more than a little revealing that pro-aborts have to conjure up a situation so convoluted and implausible just to make abortion seem reasonable.<\/p>\n

But I can\u2019t help but wonder if we’ve been negligent in leaving one of Thomson\u2019s central premises unscathed. She relies on readers\u2019 natural recoil against the thought of being drafted into the role of a human dialysis machine to make them emotionally uneasy with denying abortion to women. It\u2019s a clever move\u2014who wouldn’t be horrified?<\/p>\n

But as we’ve explored so many times before, there\u2019s a difference between personal feelings and objective justice. So if we\u2019re meant to seriously entertain the violinist scenario as a meaningful ethical guide, then we have to ask: would<\/em> unplugging yourself really be just?<\/p>\n

The call would be easiest if the violinist deliberately had you kidnapped and hooked up. He targeted you and is intentionally stealing from you for his own benefit without your permission and against your will. Pull the plug on the creep.<\/p>\n

But what if, to bring things somewhat closer to the fetus he\u2019s representing, the violinist isn’t at fault? What if he was unconscious the whole time and played no role whatsoever in the Society of Music Lovers\u2019 actions? Certainly the Society should be punished harshly for their crime against you, just as a rapist would be, and you\u2019d be entitled to damages.<\/p>\n

But the violinist is no more to blame than a baby conceived in rape<\/a> would be. Once he\u2019s been made dependent on you to live, and you know that disconnecting would kill him, do you really have that right?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not so sure the answer is the unqualified \u201cyes\u201d the bodily-autonomy crowd assumes. Granted, I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s a \u201cno\u201d either, but I am sure of this: choices where death is on the table demand something better than just taking the first easy out we can find. I\u2019m sure that finding ourselves in situations where there\u2019s no ideal outcome cannot be a license to discard ethics entirely.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m sure that the world pro-aborts are trying to build as they bitterly cling to bodily-autonomy absolutism<\/a>, one where the primary objective in all moral dilemmas is rationalizing the most desirable outcome, is one none of us should want to live in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all pro-lifers have done to debunk the \u201cbodily autonomy\u201d argument for abortion\u2014the idea that abortion is merely exercising a pregnant woman\u2019s absolute right to revoke her unborn son or daughter\u2019s \u201cpermission\u201d to use her body whenever, however, and why-ever she wants\u2014it occurs to me there\u2019s one aspect of it we’ve been neglecting. The violinist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[19,1592,2526,536,2525,972,2527],"yoast_head":"\nPulling the plug on the violinist argument for abortion - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The violinist argument comes from Judith Jarvis Thomson\u2019s 1971 Philosophy & Public Affairs essay \u201cA Defense of Abortion.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pulling-the-plug-on-the-violinist-argument-for-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pulling the plug on the violinist argument for abortion - 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