Pro-Life, Pro-Choice: Shared Values in the Abortion Debate

2. Responsibility and Other Worries

46 Although I often donate blood, sometimes I value my errands or work deadlines more than donation. Typically this is not regarded as a breach of any specific duty to another person—I do not owe anyone a pint of my blood. However, were my daughter in need of a blood transfusion and I were a compatible donor, it would seem to be a grave violation of my moral obligation to her not to drop everything I was doing in order to donate blood for the transfusion (even though, in the end, I could never be forced to do so). Not only am I responsible for her existence , but my relationship to her seems to bestow this moral obligation upon me. Given these two reasons, can we argue that a woman who voluntarily engages in sexual intercourse is morally responsible for the fetus’s dependence , given that she contributed to its creation, and that the fetus is, at least biologically, her offspring? If so, could these reasons be sufficient for concluding that she owes the fetus use of her womb, since remaining there is the only way the fetus can survive? These are some of the considerations presented by those who challenge Judith Jarvis Thomson. I will consider these, and two other objections to her argument, below.1 2 Responsibility and Other Worries 47 Responsibility and Other Worries The Fetus, Moral Obligations, and Intimacy To further support the conclusion that having a right to life does not mean having a right to whatever one needs for survival,Thomson offers the following example: In some views having a right to life includes having a right to be given at least the bare minimum one needs for continued life. But suppose that what in fact is the bare minimum a man needs for continued life is something he has no right at all to be given? If I am sick unto death, and the only thing that will save my life is the touch of Henry Fonda’s cool hand on my fevered brow, then all the same, I have no right to be given the touch of Henry Fonda’s cool hand on my fevered brow. It would be frightfully nice of him to fly in from the West Coast to provide it. It would be less nice, though no doubt well meant, if my friends flew out to the West Coast and brought Henry Fonda back with them. But I have no right at all against anybody that he should do this for me.2 In response to this thought experiment, John Wilcox objects that it is one thing for Henry Fonda to not fly in from the West Coast to save Thomson, but it is quite another thing for him to refuse to do so for his own child. Regarding Thomson’s example of the violinist, he writes: A woman and her fetus are of one flesh and blood, the child is her child; she is its mother; but the violinist is a total stranger. . . . Your own child is not just “a certain man” to you, a “stranger”; and you are not just “a certain Samaritan” to your own child. I really think I have obligations to my children, and to my natural brother, as I had obligations to my parents when they were alive.3 Many of us would agree with Wilcox that familial relationships create special obligations. As Nancy Jecker writes: “family members are governed by stronger ethical responsibilities than strangers, and we expect them to serve each other’s welfare to a greater extent.”4 My refusal to donate bone marrow to save a stranger’s life would be more acceptable than refusing to donate bone marrow to save my mother or child. Wilcox maintains he possesses special obligations to his “natural brother.” The use of the term “natural” indicates that he believes being Pro-­ Life, Pro-­ Choice 48 genetically related to another person is sufficient for establishing special obligations toward that person. Christopher Kaczor argues that “biological relationships are morally, humanly important.”5 It is true that, to someextent, biological connections matter. Infertile couples spend thousands of dollars on fertility treatments to conceive a child who is biologically related to them. Some adopted children and children of gamete donors (men who donate sperm and woman who donate ova) spend a lot of money to find their biological parents and are deeply emotionally invested...