You wake up in the morning beside an unconscious violinist…

A metaphor from the abortion debate:

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 now is 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.

Pro-abortion choice advocates have relied upon this thought experiment for decades. They argue, rather simplistically, that this specific woman’s right to unplug the violinist translates into a general right to elective abortion. Many of my pro-life students are stumped by the argument and seek my advice on how to navigate it succinctly. I am writing this column to provide a response to those inquiries.

Read on here.