Judith Jarvis Thomson

Required Readings

Writing Assignment

This week's writing assignment should be submitted through the course's blackboard page. To submit it, you should go to the Discussion Board section, then open this week's forum, which is called "Week 6 Assignment". You should begin a new thread in that forum and post your answer to the question there.

Your assignment this week is to find an example of a public figure who, you think, would benefit from reading one of this week's readings about abortion, and to explain why you think they would benefit. The purpose of this assignment is to show that public discourse about controversial topics like abortion could be much more enlightened than it currently is.

Your first job will be to choose a public figure who has recently made some public statement or argument about the ethics of abortion. This public figure could be a politician, or a media personality, or an athlete, or anyone else who has publicly argued for some view on abortion. You should include a link to the source in which this argument is given. Next, you should briefly summarize the public figure's argument. After that, you should critique their argument, drawing on something that you learned in one of this week's readings. Your goal should be to show that if the public figure would just think carefully about things from the point of view of the reading in question, they would have to change their view in some way.

Your answer should be no more than 300 words long. It is due on Friday, October 6th at 11:59pm.

(There is no bonus point opportunity this week.)