Response to “Commentary on Thomson's Violinist and Conjoined Twins” by John K. Davis (CQ Vol 8, No 4): Reply to Davis

The point of Judith Jarvis Thomson's violinist example is to establish that one person, A, can acquire a right to use the body of another person, B, if and only if B performs some kind of affirmative act that gives A such a right. On her view, the reason it is permissible for you to unplug your...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Himma, Kenneth Einar (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2000
In: Cambridge quarterly of healthcare ethics
Year: 2000, Volume: 9, Issue: 1, Pages: 120-122
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:The point of Judith Jarvis Thomson's violinist example is to establish that one person, A, can acquire a right to use the body of another person, B, if and only if B performs some kind of affirmative act that gives A such a right. On her view, the reason it is permissible for you to unplug yourself from the violinist is that you did nothing to give the violinist a right to use your body: the violinist was plugged into you without your consent. Thus it follows that the mere fact that A needs use of B's body to survive is not enough to give rise to a right in A to use B's body. Accordingly, Thomson concludes, the claim that the fetus has a right to life does not imply abortion is morally impermissible.
ISSN:1469-2147
Contains:Enthalten in: Cambridge quarterly of healthcare ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0963180100001110