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Rosalind Hursthouse
- Hursthouse criticizes Judith Jarvis Thomson for focusing so much on rights, and neglecting other forms of moral evaluation. Do you agree that this is a problem for Thomson? Why or why not? Is the debate about abortion about more than the rights of the mother?
- Given how complicated the decision to have an abortion is, does it seem fair to make moral judgments about the quality of a woman’s character if she decides to have an abortion?
- Are the cases that Hursthouse brings up—a child on a doorstep, a person at sea— properly analogous to pregnancy? What does this mean for Hursthouse’s argument?
- How might Thomson reply to Hursthouse’s criticisms? Write an essay defending Thomson’s view.