Approximately 50 years have passed since Judith Jarvis Thomson wrote A Defense of
Abortion (1971). Her article has significantly shaped the philosophical literature on abortion …

Judith Jarvis Thomson, an American philosopher born in 1929, works in ethics and
philosophy of mind. Her article on abortion is one of the most widely reprinted essays of …

“A Defense of Abortion” was initially published in the inaugural issue of Philosophy & Public
Affairs in the fall of 1971. It had an immediate impact on philosophers' discussions of …

Thomson, is now" the most widely reprinted essay in all oi contemporary philosophy." 2 It
must be important. Nevertheless, though referenees to it are common, and though many …

Does the foetus use the body of the woman who has it in the same way that the violinist is
using the body of the unwilling kidney donor? Thomson takes it for granted that the relation …

I show that the common reading of Thomson, that she argues by analogy for the conclusion
that abortion is permissible, is mistaken. The correct reading of Thomson is that she argues …

Many philosophers who wish to defend abortion, but who have become frustrated by the
resistance of the personhood question to yield to any nonarbitrary solution welcomed Judith …

In response to this argument, Thomson asks what is meant by the crucial expression'right to
life'. After rejecting two inadequate semantical analyses, 2 she settles on a third, her" …

The most iUlportant contribution which professional philosophers could make to the debate
concerning abortion would be to produce a detailed conceptual analysis of the sorts of …

The article presents the author's insights on the argument of Judith Jarvis Thomson in her
article" A Defense of Abortion," which is the most influential philosophical paper on abortion …