The Organ Donation Argument is often peddled by pro-choice activists as a way to trap pro-life conservatives in a double standard. The problem is, the argument is already flawed.
This article will go over the Organ Donation Argument, explain why it is flawed, and outline the conservative rebuttal against it.
Table of Contents
The Organ Donation Scenario
Someone needs a kidney transplant or they will die, and you are the only match. Should the government be able to force you to donate your kidney to sustain their life?
The answer that most people will give is “no,” because people have the right to bodily autonomy. That is exactly the argument from the pro-choice side. They argue that:
- Because the law doesn’t force you to donate an organ to save someone’s life, the law should not force a woman to use her body to sustain a pregnancy.
- Forced pregnancy forces women to use their body to sustain another life, similar to how forcing a kidney donation would force your body to be used to sustain another life.
This sounds convincing and can be tricky for pro-life conservatives to get around at first, but like the Violinist Argument, it’s actually very easy to rebut.
The Conservative Rebuttal
Here “active” killing means directly ending a life; “passive” letting die means withholding intervention and allowing a natural death. The Organ Donation Argument falls short in a few big ways:
Abortion is the intentional killing of another life, not just declining to save: Refusing to donate your organ is not saving an already dying person. It is passive. You are merely returning the person to their dying state. Abortion is the active killing of a person that will be developing naturally if left alone.
In the Organ Donation Argument, the intention is different. By not donating your kidney, you are merely declining to save. Abortion is intentionally killing the baby. Unlike the passive act of not saving, abortion is an active act of taking the life of the unborn child.
This is the conservative argument against the Organ Donation Argument, and we know that both a human life and personhood begin at conception, which makes abortion morally wrong.
Overall, the Organ Donation Argument really isn’t a solid justification for bodily autonomy in the case of abortion. Bodily autonomy ends where the baby’s life begins.
The Bottom Line
- Abortion is the intentional killing of another life, not just declining to save.
- The cause of death for the person is the illness, while the cause of death for the baby is intentional killing.