Personal bodily rights, abortion, and unplugging the violinist

Judith Jarvis Thomson has presented an influential argument for abortion based on the woman's right to control her body. She compares the pregnant woman to someone who is involuntarily plugged into the circulatory system of a famous violinist suffering from an otherwise fatal kidney ailment. Thomson's argument is flawed in that it assumes that moral obligations must be voluntary, denies special obligations to family members, denies prima facie rights of the unborn and ignores the distinction between killing and withholding treatment.