A Little History of Philosophy (Little Histories)

by Nigel Warburton

Philosophers are still arguing about the train example and how it should be solved. They're also arguing about another thought experiment that Judith Jarvis Thomson (born 1929) came up with. This one was to show that a woman who had used contraception but who had still become pregnant did not have a moral duty to go through with having the baby. She could have an abortion without doing something morally wrong. To have the baby in such circumstances would be an act of charity, but not a duty. Traditionally, debates about the morality of abortion had focused on the foetus' point of view. Her argument was important in that it gave a lot of weight to the woman's perspective. Here's the example. There is a famous violinist who has a kidney problem. His only chance of survival is to be plugged into a person who shares his very rare blood group. You have that same blood group. One morning you wake up to find that while you were asleep doctors have attached him to your kidneys. Thomson argues that in such a situation you don't have a duty to keep him plugged into you, even though you know that he will die if you pull the tubes out. In the same way, she suggests, if a woman is pregnant even though she used contraception, the developing foetus inside her does not have an automatic right to the use of her body. The foetus is like the violinist.