The Immortal Soul: Plato, Phaedo p. 203-209

The short papers should attempt to explain the major points of the reading in your own words. Sources other than the textbook are not required or allowed. The summaries must be submitted via the dropbox in Blackboard, which automatically checks for plagiarism. Submit these summaries in APA style as explained at the following website: http://www.ecc.edu/citation-tools.

Below is a Sample response paper:

In this excerpt Judith Jarvis Thomson pieces some together some interesting analogies to discuss abortion and women’s rights. Thomson’s analogy of the violinist is an interesting choice and she brings up some relevant points. However, this analogy only seems to apply to rape victims. Thomson then goes on to provide us another analogy, one of a burglar, to cover conception that is not forced.  This is another well thought out analogy on her part. As thoughtful as Thomson’s discussion is, I see a major flaw in, which paves the way for a whole other conversation  

Thomson’s whole premise is this, just because a person has a right to live it does not have the right to live at the expense of others. She claims the fetus though it has a right to live, and it would be admirable of the mother to let it do so, it would not be unjust to simply abort it. They are at this point parasitic and cannot survive without its host. So here enters the dilemma, where do we draw the line with this theory. Babies and young children are completely dependent on others to survive. Could I as a parent, using Thomson’s theory, decide that I no longer wish to expend my energy sustaining another’s existence and let them die? Remember at the beginning of her argument she conceded that a fetus is a person, so her theory should hold true to all people. Also what about on a much larger scale, what about those who are mentally ill or disabled and rely on the government and care of others to maintain life, would it be just to let those people die?

I appreciate Thomson’s ability to see abortion as a complex issue, one where details matter. It just seems as one tries to make sense of all those gray areas, more gray areas arise.