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Full Idea
Can we say that a person has a right to life only if they didn't come into existence through rape, or that the latter have less right to life?
Gist of Idea
Is someone's right to life diminished if they were conceived by a rape?
Source
Judith (Jarvis) Thomson (A Defense of Abortion [1971], p.126)
Book Ref
'Ethics for Modern Life', ed/tr. Abelson,R./Friquegnon,M [St Martin's 1987], p.126
A Reaction
This would clearly be an inconsistency for some opponents of abortion who allow rape as an exception.
4695 | Maybe abortion can be justified despite the foetus having full human rights [Thomson, by Foot] |
4696 | The foetus is safe in the womb, so abortion initiates its death, with the mother as the agent. [Foot on Thomson] |
4057 | A newly fertilized ovum is no more a person than an acorn is an oak tree [Thomson] |
4058 | Is someone's right to life diminished if they were conceived by a rape? [Thomson] |
4059 | It can't be murder for a mother to perform an abortion on herself to save her own life [Thomson] |
4060 | The right to life does not bestow the right to use someone else's body to support that life [Thomson] |
4061 | The right to life is not a right not to be killed, but not to be killed unjustly [Thomson] |
4062 | No one is morally required to make huge sacrifices to keep someone else alive for nine months [Thomson] |