Students for Human Life hosted five events this week for its annual Save the Humans Week, featuring free cupcakes, two speakers, a demonstration on the quad and a board game tournament.

Members of the organization handed lunch-goers cupcakes stuck with miniature flags giving details about fetal development Monday, but that was just the beginning of the group’s week of advocacy.

On Tuesday, St. Thomas philosophy professor Mathew Lu presented his refutation of a well-known academic essay by Judith Jarvis Thomson that argues that women should be able to have abortions.

Lu said that Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion” was “the most famous analogy in philosophy and theology in the last 50 years.”

Thomson’s essay uses the analogy of a famous violinist whose circulatory system has been “plugged into” an unidentified person, without the person’s consent, in an effort to keep the violinist alive after he has been discovered to have a fatal kidney disease. As the analogy goes, the person must keep the violinist plugged in for nine months (any time before would kill him), after which he can safely be unplugged.

As Thomson wrote in her 1971 paper, “Is it morally incumbent on you to accede to this situation? No doubt it would be very nice of you if you did, a great kindness. But do you have to accede to it?”

In his speech, Lu laid out a philosophical argument for why Thomson’s violinist case is dissimilar from a pregnancy (specifically, a pregnancy by rape). Among his assertions, he said that an embryo is not “plugged into” its mother by an external force as violinist was, but instead is created as part of a “natural, organic process.”

He also argued that while unplugging the violinist would solve the person’s problem, aborting the child would not be a solution for the rape.

“Justice is served by undoing the evil in (the) violinist case. In the rape case…the pregnancy is an unexpected consequence of the rape,” Lu said. “The unjust act is not the pregnancy, but the rape.”

In an interview with TommieMedia after the lecture, Lu said he wants St. Thomas students to know that arguments against abortion can be made philosophically, without the influence of religion or biology.

“A lot of people falsely believe that the pro-life position depends on religious conviction,” Lu said. “We evaluate the abortion arguments the same way we would evaluate arguments about the death penalty or about taxation or about anything else. So when we evaluate those arguments, we have to bring natural reason to bear.”

Wednesday’s speaker took on the issue of abortion from a more personal angle. St. Thomas junior Emma Western spoke to a crowd of 40 about her experience of choosing adoption for her baby.

Western told the story of her unexpected pregnancy her freshman year at St. Thomas. A physics major, Western was taking 22 credits the semester she found out she was pregnant. Her parents urged her to have an abortion, but Western said she knew she had a responsibility to keep her growing baby safe.

“I wasn’t willing to let someone go inside of me and take out the life I was supposed to protect,” she said.

After she decided abortion was not the right path, Western then had to face another hurdle: whether she would raise baby Joy on her own, or whether she would give her up for adoption.

Western said she soon realized that Joy would have a better life if if adopted by a couple her sister knew.

“I was not putting my baby first; I was being selfish. I was not what was best for my baby. I was not her best shot,” Western recounted with tears in her eyes.

Western said that her child was born during finals week of her sophomore year.

“She may not have been planned, but she was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Western said.

Western’s roommates, who attended the talk, said their friend is an inspiration.

“I’ve watched nothing but blessing come from her decision,” junior Emma Salmi said. “Her message is about love, and about how sometimes doing the loving thing is really hard… I’ve watched one of my best friends be so hurt. But she’s also so strong.”

The week’s activities culminated Thursday in a demonstration on the quad. A persistent drizzle did not deter members of the club from handing out red flyers to passers-by that read, “For every five St. Thomas undergrads, nine babies are killed by abortion in Minnesota every year.”

The group also held up a large yellow banner featuring the same statistic.

First-year student and club member Emma Fisher said that the reason the demonstration did not feature typical protest mainstays like chanting was because it would not be an effective way to convey their message to students.

“We’re really coming from an aspect of love for all life. (We are not) trying to hammer in our views to people,” Fisher said. “We want to approach and have real conversations and get to know people.”

First-year Lexie Lyng did not agree with the group’s message but still supported Students for Human Life’s right to demonstrate.

“It’s an interesting statistic, so you’re kind of shocked about it, but then it’s just what it is. It doesn’t really change my opinion on it,” Lyng said. “I think a woman’s body is her own, and that it’s up to her what she wants to do with it. I don’t think anybody should be able to tell her what she can and can’t do with it. I don’t necessarily support the killing, but it’s her body and I think it’s up to her.”

Students for Human Life adviser Catherine Deavel, a professor in the philosophy department, said she thinks putting out a statistic like this lays the groundwork for substantive discussion on the issue.

“It’s worth saying, ‘OK, what kind of data do I have? What kinds of arguments do I have for goods or ills?’… And then go from the things that seem more certain to the things that seem more charged. Let’s start with things we can all agree on and then move toward that issue,” Deavel said.

Deavel said she feels honored to work with the students involved with Save the Humans Week.

“It’s not always the most comfortable thing to present to the community a position that is highly charged and one you feel strongly about,” Deavel said. “You never know quite what the reaction is going to be. But I’m very proud of them that they are always so respectful, (that) they’re joyful and that they are so empathetic for children and families.”

The week’s events will end with a LIFE board game tournament Friday evening in Scooters.

Sophie Carson can be reached at sophia.carson@stthomas.edu.