Introduction to Biomedical Ethics

Instructor: Aaron Segal

Second essay assignment

Due date: November 17, 11:59pm

Assignment: Complete one of the following prompts, and upload your essay to Canvas. The
maximum word count is 900 words. You are not required to find outside sources, but make sure
to cite your sources—ordinarily, just the article that the prompt you choose concerns. Late papers
will lose 1/3 of a letter grade per day, and plagiarized papers will receive a 0. If you need an
extension, please ask me prior to the due date. Finally, please specify which prompt you are
answering at the top of the first page, and include your student ID number at the top of that page,
but don’t include your name anywhere on the essay.

Prompt 1: In “A Defense of Abortion”, Thomson argues that having the right to life does not
entail having the right to others providing you with what you need to survive. Reconstruct her
argument for this claim, and provide an objection to it.

Prompt 2: In “The Presumptive Primacy of Procreative Liberty”, Robertson argues that the right
of procreative liberty protects non-coital reproduction to the same extent as it protects coital
reproduction. Reconstruct his argument for this claim, and provide an objection to it.

Prompt 3: In “Is Women’s Labor a Commodity?”, Anderson argues that the practice of
commercial surrogacy impermissibly commodifies women’s labor. Reconstruct her argument for
this claim, and provide an objection to it.