Abortion and Judith Thompson's Violinist "You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers have canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped you, and last night the violinist's circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you, 'Look, we're sorry the Society of Music Lovers did this to you-we would never have permitted it if we had known. But still, they did it, and the violinist is now plugged into you. To unplug him would be to kill him. But never mind, it's only for nine months. By then he will have recovered from his ailment, and can safely be unplugged from you.' Is it morally incumbent on you to accede to this situation?" (Judith Thompson) Judith Thompson goes on to argue that the fetus, like the violinist, has no right to use your body unless you give it to him. Therefore, abortion, in the case of rape at least, is permissible. Let us grant that one may indeed unplug oneself from the violinist. May one take a gun and shoot him in the head? May one cut him into pieces? May one poison him if by doing so he will disconnect in the process? Of course not, that would be immoral. Possibly, you will ask why, because he will die in both cases. Yes, you are the cause of his death in either case. However, in spite of these similarities there is a difference. The man is sick. If you unplug yourself from him, he will die from his sickness. For if, he was not sick, he would not die from being disconnected. Nevertheless, if you shoot him, then he dies of the bullet you have put in his brain, and not of his sickness. For even if he were well, he would still die of the damage done by the bullet.
