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Analogy analysis: Take the printout of The Famous Violinist.

Essay Instructions:

Take the printout of The Famous Violinist.

Underline words or phrases in the thought experiment that you feel are analogous to the case of a pregnant woman and her fetus. For example, in the first scenario you are told you’ll be attached to the violinist for “only [ ] nine months,” which is an obvious allusion to the length of a standard pregnancy. Put an “S” above these words or phrases to denote “similarities.” Also underline words or phrases in the thought experiment that you feel are disanalogous to the case of the pregnant woman and her fetus. For instance, the person you’re attached to is a “violinist,” thus a fully-grown human person and not an unborn fetus. Put a “D” above these words to denote “dissimilarities.” For some things it may not be clear whether it’s a difference or similarity, but it seems relevant for the analogy. For instance, I’m not sure whether the violinist’s status as a “famous” person is similar or different to the status of an unborn fetus, but it still seems to be important for the argument in some way that the violinist isn’t simply a nobody. In these cases write “S/D.” 


In the margins or elsewhere you can also write comments about ways in which the famous violinist scenario is similar or different from real-life pregnancy cases. There’s more than one violinist scenario (e.g., one where you’re attached for 9 months, another where it’s for life, another where you will die soon as a result, etc.), and you may find that one scenario is more similar to one kind of pregnancy than to another, or more or less analogous overall to real-life cases.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

The Famous Violinist
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The Famous Violinist
I propose, then, that we grant that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception. How does the argument go from here? Something like this, I take it. Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No doubt the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body; everyone would grant that. But surely a person's right to life is stronger and more stringent than the mother's right to decide what happens in and to her body, and so outweighs it. So the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed.
It sounds plausible. But now let me ask you to imagine this. You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped you, and last night the violinist's circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. The director of the hospital now tells you, "Look, we're sorry the Society of Music Lovers did this to you--we would never have permitted it if we had known. But still, they did it, and the violinist is now plugged into you. To unplug you would be to kill him. But never mind, it's only for nine months. By then he will have recovered from his ailment, and can safely be unplugged from you." Is it morally incumbent on you to accede to this situation? No doubt it would be very nice of you if you did, a great kindness. But do you have to accede to it? What if it were not nine months, but nine years? Or longer still? What if the director of the hospital says. "Tough luck. I agree. But now you've got to stay in bed, with the violinist plugged into you, for the rest of your life. Because remember this. All persons have a right to life, and violinists are persons. Granted you have a right to decide what happens in and to your body, but a person's right to l...
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