If you're pro-choice what do you think about this argument?

Question

Say there was a homeless guy walking down the street. He colapses, and he is rushed to the hospital. He has no ID, no family to report him missing, nobody has any idea who he is.

It turns out he has a rare disease that can only be cured one way. By having someone continuously give him a blood transfusion for 9 strait months.

Obviously nobody should be forced to give the blood transfusion, that would be like rape. Lets say however that the hospital sweetens the deal. They set up a roulette wheel with 30 spaces. If you spin the wheel you get $50. If you land on 00 however, you get plugged into the guy.

So you figure what the hell there is only a 1 in 30 chance of hitting 00. So you spin, you lose and get plugged in. Nobody forced you to spin the wheel. It was your choice that got you where you are. can you unplug? You knew the potential consequenses of spinning the wheel, nobody can be blamed but you. Unplugging will kill this man. Should you be allowed to do it?

The drifter is equivalent to a fetus in every relavent way. Neither is capable of surviving on it's own. Assuming they each have the same odds of surviving the next 9 months, after those months they will each be fully functional humans with equal rights.
When you have unprotected sex you are participating in an activity that is known to have reasonable odds of producing a pregnancy. There's no real difference.

This analogy has nothing to do with rape, incest, molestation, or if the woman's life is in danger, this is a case of having unprotected sex, and becoming accidentally pregnant.

Answer 1

That's a REALLY good analogy. It made me stop and think for a while.
I'm pro-choice, although I've always been on the fence a bit. The only thing I can say is this:

There is a difference between a fetus and this man. No one would deny that the man is alive, but I don't think a fetus (at least not in the very early stage) is alive. It will be, don't get me wrong.
The man is alive. Not giving the transfusion would be murder. The fetus is not yet alive, so it's not murder.

Like I said, I'm on the fence, so while this explanation is how I'd respond, I'm a little ambivalent.

Answer 2

I think it interesting that first you said it was an analogy to pro choice and then you added all these variables. You are either pro choice or you are not. There is no in between. Being pro choice doesn't mean you are pro using abortion as birth control. It means a woman has a choice to decide if a baby is the best thing for her and the baby. I had a student who was 14 and was raped by her step father and step grandfather repeatedly. She thought she found love and as she made love to her boyfriend, provactively in the dugouts, another player came along and watched, he told the other guys what was going on and pretty soon they were pushing each other out of the way to rape her. She screamed and the coach heard and had her expelled. The boys however went on to state competition and won. Being pro choice when she told me this story, she cried because she told me she wasn't sure whose baby it was and she thought God would think she was a slut and a whore and not forgive her but she was afraid if she had the baby she would be reminded of all those men in her life and she could see doing that. A priest told her she had to have that baby or she would go to hell. She had it. It died and so did she in a complicated childbirth. She was 14. You're analogy is flawed. Pro choice deals with all issues, all issues, yes, all issues. Anti abortion doesn't look at any of those issues.

Answer 3

Of course it would be considered murder not to take the necessary steps to save this guy's life, but the question that everybody brings this up to is the question of whether a fetus can be considered a human being or not, whether a fetus is just as human as a sick man.

I am pro-choice, but pro-choice on what? I believe in a person's right to choose for him/herself, free will, and not in the government choosing for an individual. However, I think it's wrong for someone to decide who lives and who dies.

I consider a fetus to be a human being not yet born. Some say the human life begins at birth... what does that mean? That the baby was DEAD before it was born? Why is it that some infants seem to be familiar with melodies and songs they have never heard after birth, but might have heard as a fetus inside their mother? Others say that a fetus can't be considered human, its just a cell. The cell is alive, constantly growing, moving, developing. In recorded history, has a woman ever given birth to something other than a human baby? Maybe something like an animal?

Yeah, of course whatever you do to your body is your own choice, but if you are supporting the life of another person in your body, you don't have the right to kill it just because a child would be an inconvenience. You don't even have to raise the child! There are plenty of couples looking for children to raise as their own, plenty of churches willing to take babies on their doorstep to find suitable parents.

Btw, its a different case with girl who would put her life in danger by giving birth, or even staying pregnant, or with a rape victim, etc. etc.

Answer 4

First of all, that situation would never happen so your argument is pointless. A person already born and alive is not the same as a fetus. Bottom line is this.....this is MY body and MY body only. It is not up to you or the government to decide for me what I can and can't do with it. I agree that abortion should never be used as birth control, but if someone else chooses to act like a you know what, then they are the ones that are going to have to live with it, not me. If I get pregnant and don't want the child, are you going to adopt it? If not, then what I do is none of your business. What about if a woman is raped, incest or if the woman's life is in danger? Should the woman have to carry her rapist's baby? Anyone who would say yes to that is pure evil in my opinion.

Answer 5

Of course there is the sadder way of looking at your example. This homeless man...abandoned and with no family to love or care for him.

There's the real tragedy. If you really want to win the Pro-Choice people over...you need to have a "real" solution for ensuring the quality of life for all children. You spend so much emotional energy on the fetus and yet care so little once it is a child.

I find the Pro-Life faction to also be the anti-welfare crowd and the anti any Government assistance.

So you see the man in your example was loved by you before he was born...but you forsake him once he breathed air and lived in a neighborhood out of sight and mind.

I suppose also that there should be no reason for a lottery. Why wouldn't every Pro-Lifer be standing in line ready to give their own blood to sustain this man's life. Why indeed...

Answer 6

I think I'm pro-choice because I like to choose. I like to choose what I eat and the clothes I wear. I think every one chooses. Some people choose to let others think for them because it is convenient, it is the mental equivalent of wearing a uniform, you don't have to decide what you will wear then next day. Some people just listen to the radio and are told how to respond to current events and it is easy. Some people can even muster some emotion and pretend that some things really matter, like which end of the egg one MUST crack first. That issue is really important. The price for abandoning intellectual freedom is easy for some. It just slips away. The kids join clubs, go to camps and do the goose step. All the while another oligarchy enriches themselves on the blood of children.
I like the transfusion part. Cool.

Answer 7

Okay, what you are failing to view or understand is that not all pro-choice stances are that black and white. There is the equivalent of rape. Or incest. If you did not choose to spin that wheel, but someone else forced you to spin it, would you still feel that you must allow them to plug you to the guy if you lost?

Mind you, I am pro-choice, even though I myself would never even begin to consider an abortion. I am just not about to tell other people that they should never consider it. It is their choice, as is how they deal with any and all possible consequences that come along with that decision.

You may see it as a cop-out, but believe me, it isn't...

Answer 8

What an observation. Did you ever once think that maybe not all abortion are from unprotected sex? What about the girl who may have been raped by her step father or the young mother who has just been diagnosed with HELLP syndrome and will die if she does not have an abortion. I guess not, because you would not have written such garbage if you had stopped and thought about these things.

Answer 9

I probably shouldn't be answering this since you said only if you are pro-choice. This is a really good argument. In the case of having unprotected sex it is exactly the same as having an abortion. You aren't going to get support from the pro-choice people because people don't change their minds easily. This was really good anyway. It made me think. Thanks.

Answer 10

Ah, but you didn't come up with this one on your own.

http://www.utdallas.edu/~jfg021000/thomson.html

He has basically ripped off the argument of Judith Jarvis Thomson and altered it. The original argument is actually a defense of abortion and is aptly titled "A Defense of Abortion." Thomson's analogy is better suited to the actual issue at hand and is far more compelling.

Maybe you didn't intentionally plagiarise it, but I think you would do well to consider her argument for a woman's right to choose before hijacking her analogy.