PHIL 201 Lecture Notes - Fetus, Ten Commandments
Document Summary
A big part of the paper is how he discusses the overall debate of abortion. He doesn"t bring in his thesis till p. 841. He thinks it hasn"t been working because of what he calls symmetries. The conservatives face a problem similar to the liberals problem in making their cases. Therefore, they are stuck at gridlock so we should start from the beginning. P. 839 he says there is a symmetry in the debate. According to thompsons paper, it is the right of the fetus to live, and it"s the right of the woman to have control over her own body. P. 840 he makes a better case for symmetry. One is in regard to the moral principle. Because without a principle you don"t have a justification for their judgment. Either the principle would explain why abortion is immoral or why it is the right of the woman: conservatives say it is wrong to end a human life form.
