Study Guide:
Baruch Brody – Against an Absolute
Right to Abortion
1. What point is Brody trying to make with the lifeboat case? How is the
lifeboat case different from a case of pregnancy where the mother's life
is threatened?
2. Compare Brody's lifeboat case to Thomson's case of the growing child in
a small house. How are they similar/different? What do you think Thomson
would say about Brody's lifeboat case?
3. What key distinction does Brody want to make prominent in this debate?
4. Do you agree with Brody that your duty not to take life still holds when
the consequence is the loss of your own life?
5. Is Brody's representation of Thomson's argument accurate? What point of
the argument does Brody wish to challenge?
6. Brody identifies three factors that make up a case of "pursuit". According
to Brody, which are satisfied and which not in the case of pregnancy where
the mother's life is threatened? What conclusion does Brody draw?
7. What is Brody's conclusion about abortion in cases of rape? How
does he argue for his position?
8. What is the brain-death theory and how does it differ from Paul Ramsey's
theory of death?
9. What implications does Brody think accepting the brain-death theory has
for the abortion debate? For instance, what are the consequences for
other theories about the essence of humanity? Is an abortion ever permissible?
If so, when/under what circumstances?
10. Do you think that brain activity is an essential feature of humanity,
such that any being that has it is necessarily fully human? Explain.