Lesson · 4 min Stretch
The Violinist
In one line Thomson’s violinist case asks whether a right to life includes a right to use another person’s body to stay alive.
Abortion is one of the most divisive questions in ethics. Many arguments turn on whether a fetus is a person with a right to life. In 1971 Judith Jarvis Thomson tried a different route. Suppose, for argument’s sake, the fetus is a person.
Then imagine waking up connected to a famous violinist with a fatal kidney disease. Music lovers have plugged his circulation into yours, and if you unplug in the next nine months, he will die. Thomson argued that you would not be a murderer if you unplugged: his right to life does not give him a right to use your body.
Critics reply that the case fits pregnancy from rape better than pregnancy from consensual sex, and that unplugging is letting die, not killing. Don Marquis argued that abortion is wrong because it deprives a fetus of a future like ours.
Go deeper
Thomson’s paper, A Defense of Abortion, is among the most reprinted articles in philosophy. Other views tie moral status to sentience or to developing capacities, giving later pregnancy more weight. Many people hold positions between the extremes. Philosophy cannot settle the question for everyone, but it can make clear which premises each side depends on.
The two neighbors
Two neighbors disagree sharply about abortion. Each assumes the other simply does not care about life, or about women.
They try a different conversation. One says her view depends on when a fetus becomes a person; the other says his depends on bodily rights. They still disagree, but now they know exactly where, and each can state the other’s view in terms the other accepts.
Try this today Pick a hard moral question you have a firm view on. Write the strongest case for the other side in two sentences.
Cite or share this lesson
A plain reference you can paste into notes or an essay:
Quest2Reason. “The Violinist.” https://quest2reason.com/learn/lesson/the-violinist. Accessed 13 November 2026.
Sources
- Wikipedia, “A Defense of Abortion” — Summarizes Thomson’s 1971 paper and the violinist case.
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Abortion” — Surveys the main positions, including Marquis’s future-like-ours argument.
- Judith Jarvis Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion” (Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1971) — The violinist case and the argument that a right to life is not a right to another’s body. Paraphrased; nothing is quoted.