Thomson’s Famous Violinist

The thought experiment that I found most interesting is Thomson’s Violinist. The
thought experiment is on the defense of abortion. It was developed by Judith Jarvis Thomson
in 1971. Thomson developed the thought experiment to support abortion for pregnancies
resulting from rape (Block 1). One of the primary reasons why abortion debates remain
polarizing is because of the disagreement on the moral status of a fetus. On the one hand are
opponents of abortion who argue that a fetus is a fully-formed human being and, therefore,
has a right to life just like any other human being (Schouten 638). On the other hand,
supporters of abortion argue that abortion is morally permissible because fetus are not yet
human beings (Schouten 638). Judith Jarvis Thomson believes that even if one accepts the
premise that a fetus is a human being with human rights, there are still circumstances where
abortion is permissible (Block 1). To make her point, she uses the thought experiment titled
Thomson’s Violinist.
In Thomson’s Violinist thought experiment, Judith Thomson creates a scenario where
you wake up and find yourself in bed with a famous violinist who is unconscious. The
famous violinist had been diagnosed with a fatal kidney ailment. Upon learning of the
diagnosis, the Society of Music Lovers began a frantic search of medical records for someone
who has the right blood type as the violinist. Finding that it is only you who has the blood
type that they were looking for, they kidnapped you and plugged the circulatory system of the
violinist with yours so that your kidneys could be used to extract poisons both from your

2
body and that of the famous violinist. To survive, the violinist needs to have his circulatory
system plugged to yours for nine months. After that period, he can survive without his
circulatory system being attached to your circulatory. However, if his circulatory system is
unplugged from yours before the nine months elapse, the violinist dies (Block 1).
There is no doubt that the violinist has a right to life. However, it is certainly not true
that he has a right to use your body. If you allow the violinist to use your body to survive for
nine months, it will be purely an act of kindness, not a moral obligation. If you decide to have
the violinist’s circulatory system unplugged from yours, no one can blame you for violating
the violinist’s right to life.
The thought experiment suggests that it is morally permissible to abort a fetus in
special cases, such as when the pregnancy is a result of rape. Just like in the thought
experiment when you are kidnapped and the violinist’s circulatory system is forcefully
attached to yours without your consent, a fetus can be said to have been forcefully attached to
the body of a woman if the pregnancy is a result of rape. The woman may decide to keep the
child and deliver. However, she is not morally obligated to do so. When she decides to
terminate the pregnancy, she is not violating the child’s right to life.
Reading Thomson’s Violinist, I found it not only imaginative but it also presented the
argument in support of abortion resulting from rape in a very logical manner. Just as Plato
used the Allegory of the Cave brilliantly to explain his Theory of Forms (Biscontini 2), I
found Thomson’s Violinist a brilliant thought experiment that effectively presented Judith
Jarvis Thomson’s position on the abortion debate. Having read this thought experiment and
others in previous readings, I am convinced that they are the best tools for presenting
arguments in a reasoned and logical manner.

3

Works Cited

Biscontini, Tyler. “Allegory of the Cave.” Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, 2015.
Block, Walter E. “Judith Jarvis Thomson on Abortion: A Libertarian Perspective.” DePaul J.
Health Care L. 19 (2017): 1.
Schouten, Gina. “Fetuses, Orphans, and a Famous Violinist: On the Ethics and Politics of
Abortion.” Social Theory and Practice 43.3 (2017): 637-665.