"Arguments from Bodily Rights" by Francis Beckwith — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:04hey folks George here right now we're
3. 0:07going to continue with the discussion of
4. 0:09the controversial moral issues
5. 0:12surrounding abortion
6. 0:14last time we discussed Judith Jarvis
7. 0:17Thompson's famous violinist example such
8. 0:19that a sickly violinist is attached to
9. 0:22my body to help him survive help him
10. 0:26continue with his uh rights to life
11. 0:29Thompson ultimately says a violinist
12. 0:32does have a right to life however that
13. 0:35violinist doesn't have a right to use my
14. 0:37body however he sees fit
15. 0:40and that analogy transfers to the fetus
16. 0:43as well the fetus might have a right to
17. 0:46life but it doesn't have a right to my
18. 0:47body now we're going to discuss Francis
19. 0:50beckwith's response to Judith Jarvis
20. 0:53Thompson in his article arguments from
21. 0:57bodily rights Beckwith mentions nine
22. 1:01problems with Thompson's arguments
23. 1:05first he has the ethical problems
24. 1:08number one
25. 1:10Thompson assumes volunteerism
26. 1:14right I mentioned last time that uh
27. 1:17Thompson seems to have a notion that
28. 1:20only negative rights exist and not
29. 1:22positive rights such that uh you don't
30. 1:25have any rights over me right sounds
31. 1:29like a very libertarian sort of position
32. 1:31when you really get down to it uh
33. 1:35Beckwith clearly says not all moral
34. 1:38obligations are obligations because you
35. 1:42volunteered to them for example deadbeat
36. 1:44fathers choose by definition right uh
37. 1:48that's what a deadbeat father is chooses
38. 1:50not to be a father yet most of us agree
39. 1:53that uh men who fathered children and
40. 1:57then don't want to take care of them
41. 1:59they do still have to pay something like
42. 2:01child support in order to help raise
43. 2:03this child by the way why
44. 2:06do we hold deadbeat fathers responsible
45. 2:09because he knew what he was doing he
46. 2:12knew that this could happen and in the
47. 2:14same way we hold drunk drivers
48. 2:16responsible why they didn't choose to
49. 2:19kill somebody in a drunk driving
50. 2:20accident but they knew that this was a
51. 2:23possibility and therefore they're
52. 2:25responsible even if you didn't choose it
53. 2:28so the volunteerism that Thompson
54. 2:31assumes is just wrong according to
55. 2:34Beckwith the second problem that
56. 2:35Beckwith has with Thompson's argument is
57. 2:38that her argument is fatal to filial
58. 2:41duty and family morality that is just
59. 2:44like the deadbeat father parents can't
60. 2:47choose to ignore children
61. 2:50however adult children Can't Ignore
62. 2:54elderly parents either we all believe
63. 2:56that we have duties to our parents
64. 2:58despite the fact that none of us chose
65. 3:01our parents and by the way the same for
66. 3:04siblings we believe in family
67. 3:06obligations despite the fact that we
68. 3:10didn't choose to get into those
69. 3:12relationships a third problem with her
70. 3:14argument is that there are good reasons
71. 3:16to suppose that a fetus actually does
72. 3:19have rights to a mother's body because
73. 3:22the fetus by its very nature
74. 3:25depends on the mother's body this is
75. 3:29wildly different from the stranger's
76. 3:31body in the violinist example of course
77. 3:34a violinist doesn't have the rights to
78. 3:36the uh my body let's say why not because
79. 3:39that's not natural that's not the nature
80. 3:43of the violinist or me however
81. 3:46a fetus is by its very nature dependent
82. 3:50upon the mother's body
83. 3:53and here's another way out for Beckwith
84. 3:57if the mother doesn't want the baby
85. 3:59adoption is always an option
86. 4:02but killing it is not an option
87. 4:05the other key ethical problem that
88. 4:08Beckwith has with Thompson's argument is
89. 4:10that abortion is killing it's not merely
90. 4:15withholding treatment so in the
91. 4:18violinist example if I withhold
92. 4:19treatment and say no you can't be
93. 4:21connected to me
94. 4:22that's withholding treatment
95. 4:25whereas abortion is an actual killing
96. 4:28and yet destruction of the fetus
97. 4:33the Good Samaritan example is not the
98. 4:36same as pregnancy and by the way
99. 4:39if it were a child whom you refuse to
100. 4:41feed you are not merely letting it die
101. 4:44we all say you can't just let your child
102. 4:47die you actually killed your child
103. 4:50by not feeding it
104. 4:53here to me is
105. 4:55um as strong or as weak as you might
106. 4:58think beckwith's um other reasons are
107. 5:02and other problems are with Thompson's
108. 5:04article for mind money this is uh yeah
109. 5:08to my sentiments to my rationale the
110. 5:10strongest
111. 5:12reasoning that back with house imagine
112. 5:15you find a baby on your doorstep in a
113. 5:17basket somebody leaves a basket on your
114. 5:19doorstep
115. 5:21Thompson's logic seems to suggest that
116. 5:24you are allowed to Simply step over the
117. 5:27baby and say it's not my problem
118. 5:31Beckwith suggests I'm not sure that's
119. 5:34accurate
120. 5:36right
121. 5:37Beckwith suggests we do have obligations
122. 5:41to a baby that's left on our doorstep
123. 5:45right we do have real moral obligations
124. 5:48to this thing
125. 5:49now let's go to the legal problems that
126. 5:52uh Beckwith has with Thompson's argument
127. 5:55and he takes this idea from Noonan he
128. 5:58says trespassers by the way do have
129. 6:01rights to stay if the outside
130. 6:04environment is Harsh enough so if a
131. 6:07burglar uh steals into my home in the
132. 6:10middle of the night and then all of the
133. 6:12sudden there's a terrible storm or
134. 6:14something outside let's say a snowstorm
135. 6:16or blizzard happens overnight
136. 6:17immediately
137. 6:19I do not have the right to Simply kick
138. 6:23out the trespasser right and so
139. 6:26presumably the argument goes for fetuses
140. 6:29yes even if the fetus is trespassing
141. 6:31over your body there are a legal
142. 6:35Traditions that say trespassers
143. 6:38sometimes do have rights to stay on some
144. 6:41property right
145. 6:42furthermore all states impose
146. 6:45obligations on parents to give the most
147. 6:48basic care to children
148. 6:50even child protection laws reflect the
149. 6:53deepest moral intuitions about parental
150. 6:56responsibility and so presumably this
151. 7:00means that in the same way that parents
152. 7:03are minimally morally required to care
153. 7:05for their children
154. 7:07presumably that also means that a mother
155. 7:09is minimally required to care for the
156. 7:12fetus this other set this final set of
157. 7:14problems are very interesting that
158. 7:16Beckwith comes up with and these all
159. 7:18have to do with the issues of feminism
160. 7:21it's interesting
161. 7:24coming from a feminist let's say
162. 7:25Beckwith says that
163. 7:28Thompson is trying to say that a woman
164. 7:31who's pregnant is somehow incapacitated
165. 7:35by pregnancy
166. 7:37after all most feminists don't they
167. 7:40suggest that that pregnant women can and
168. 7:44still do and are able to work just as
169. 7:47effectively and participate in the
170. 7:49workforce just as effectively as
171. 7:52non-pregnant women uh let's say up until
172. 7:54the time of childbirth or something like
173. 7:58that so for that reason Beckwith sees
174. 8:01some sort of feminist disconnect another
175. 8:04feminist disconnected back with cease is
176. 8:07that Thompson's argument seems to depend
177. 8:10on a very strong libertarianism uh that
178. 8:13I mentioned earlier regarding negative
179. 8:15rights and positive rights and Thompson
180. 8:17seems to suggest that we only have
181. 8:20negative rights that is the right to be
182. 8:23left alone
183. 8:24as opposed to other uh political rights
184. 8:28theories that suggests that I have other
185. 8:31rights like the right over you to give
186. 8:34me education let's say or the rights
187. 8:36over uh other people to tax
188. 8:39them to pay for my education or my
189. 8:42health care or other sorts of things
190. 8:44yet
191. 8:45on so many other issues
192. 8:49most feminists are against such
193. 8:53libertarian thinking according to
194. 8:55Beckwith and so that seems to uh be at
195. 8:58odds with
196. 9:01consistency at least with feminism
197. 9:04the final idea that suggests according
198. 9:07to Beckwith that Thompson's ideas are at
199. 9:10odds with
200. 9:12certain kinds of feminism is that this
201. 9:14is a very masculine view of bodily
202. 9:17autonomy according to Beckwith that is
203. 9:19many feminists argue against committing
204. 9:24oppressive violence over others
205. 9:27except on this case Thompson and other
206. 9:29feminists want the right to commit
207. 9:32violence over this being called a fetus
208. 9:36and that again seems uh
209. 9:39to have a consistency problem or a
210. 9:41coherence problem according to Beckwith
211. 9:44after all abortion is oppressive
212. 9:47violence against a small weak
213. 9:50independent being
214. 9:53and in many other
215. 9:55Avenues
216. 9:57feminists seem to support small weak
217. 10:00independent beings yet in this weird
218. 10:03place feminists like this masculine
219. 10:06violence that is the violence
220. 10:09to destroy a fetus according to Beckwith
221. 10:13so I hope that summarizes for you
222. 10:14beckwith's uh nine key problems to
223. 10:18Thompson's ideas defending abortion
224. 10:21rights
225. 10:22see you next time bye-bye