Abortion and determination rules: a criticism of J. Thomson’s violinist analogy based on deductive arguments
Keywords:
Bioethics. Public health. Abortion. Judith Thomson. Violinist analogy.Abstract
The objective of this essay is to weave a logically rigorous critique, in addition to promoting a critical-argumentative discussion with replies and rejoinders, to the violinist's argument, exposed in the article by J. Thomson, using the procedure of transforming an analogical argument, such as the violinist argument, in purely deductive arguments through the method of rules of determination elaborated by T. R.Davies and S. Russell. The criticisms of the arguments presented in the violinist analogy are based on the following principles or considerations: on the principle of respect for universal physical integrity, on the principle of responsibility for what is created, on the consideration of the specialty of the maternal bond at a physical and psychological level and on weighting the similarity of the magnitude of physical/psychic demands related to both “safe abortion” and childbirth. The conclusion reached in this essay was that the five deductive arguments constructed from aspects of the violinist's analogy did not prove to be cogent, as some of the assumptions adopted did not apply to real situations of abortion.
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