philosophy:Thomson's Violinist Case
So Stephen, Tom, and I were discussing what we thought the violinist case was supposed to represent (you know where the music weirdos kidnap you and attach your kidneys to the violinist to give him life).
I have problems saying it is only about rape cases (or even mostly about rape cases). I lean more to understanding it as talking about unplanned, unwanted pregnancies, which just so happens also does a good job motivating the rape cases. Is this a crazy thing for me to think?
What is the common understanding and what do you think?
So Stephen, Tom, and I were discussing what we thought the violinist case was supposed to represent (you know where the music weirdos kidnap you and attach your kidneys to the violinist to give him life).
I have problems saying it is only about rape cases (or even mostly about rape cases). I lean more to understanding it as talking about unplanned, unwanted pregnancies, which just so happens also does a good job motivating the rape cases. Is this a crazy thing for me to think?
What is the common understanding and what do you think?
2 Comments:
I think that the Violinist Case is most analogous to cases of pregnancy resulting from rape. There are certain disanalogies that could be morally relevant between this case and cases of merely unwanted pregnancy. For example, in the violinist case, you have done absolutely nothing to land yourself in this scenario: you were forcibly kidnapped and then hooked up to a person. However, in most cases of merely unwanted pregnancy, you did do something that lead you to be in your situation (which is, of course, intentionally having sex).
Thomson develops cases towards the end of her article that are meant to cover merely unwanted pregnancies. One such example is the infamous "people seed" example. Suppose that people seeds float about in the air, and need a good carpet in which to inhere and grow. If you do not want the responsibility of a people seed growing in your home, then you can either (a) keep your windows shut, thus ensuring none will enter your house or (b) install screeens on your windows that are 99% effective in keeping them out. Since you enjoy fresh air, you decide to buy the screens and open your windows, but alas, your screen is defective and a people seed enters your home. Thomson feels that since you have taken precautions against this, you have the right to vacuum and kill the people seed.
This is much closer to merely unwanted pregnancies than is the FVC. The fact that a being depends on you for its existence is the direct result of actions you have taken.
My experience has been that most students find some plausibility in the FMV case, but find the people seed example to be less than convincing.
For more on this subject, see the beginning of Mary Ann Warren's paper, "The Moral and Legal Status of Abortion". In it, she begins by discussing Thomson's FVC example. She modifies it so it is more like merely unwanted pregnancies in order to show that the FVC works *only* for cases of pregnancy due to rape.
[Sorry for the anonymous post: I did not want to create an account. For the record, I am
Scott Wilson
http://www.wright.edu/~scott.wilson
And say hi to Joe Ulatowski for me.]
All this talk is interesting and important, however, the point of the case isn't really how or why one gets pregnant or even if the pregnancy is wanted. The point of Thompson's example is to bypass the personhood argument. The example is suppose to show that the violinist has moral status, that is, counts as a person, but even so, does not have the right to the means of it's survival, i.e. the innocent person that it is hooked up to. So even if we grant personhood which establishes the moral status of the fetus, that is, its worth is the same as the mother's, it may have the right to life, but it does not have the right to the means of life when it infringes upon another person. This the same for you and me. This example shifts away from the common issues of personhood and moral status of the fetus in determining if abortion is morally permitted.
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