Liberal blogger Majikthise argues that pro-choice advocates will not be able to win public opinion without changing people's concept of motherhood and pregnacy. As one commenter on that post notes:
"The major problem, as I see it, is that expectant mothers form an emotional bond to the fetus, and publicly calling it a 'lump of tissue' won't win very many hearts and minds. The truth is that emotional attachment doesn't make the fetus human ... So how do you convince these people that their fetus is a cute and cuddly little ball of cells, but the woman who wants an abortion has a lump of tissue?"Well, I would argue that the fetus' humanity ellicits emotional attachment. And the fetus' humanity is what differentiates it from a piglet, in reference to the comparison Majikthise uses:
"But if you're prepared to allow people to kill piglets for food, you should accept a woman's right to terminate a non-viable second-trimester fetus. Arguably, the piglet has a stronger claim to be left alone than the fetus. The piglet has a much richer mental life. It is a being actively engaged with its environment with unequivocal cognitive, affective, and social capacities."So I think Majikthise has a really good point: unless pro-choice advocates can convince the public that fetuses are neither living nor human, the anti-abortionists will always have an edge in public debate.
5 comments:
It's great hat you're posting you beliefs on this and I'm reading everything, but at the moment I'm not going to comment. I am doing my own research on this topic and feel I need a wider array of information before I can discuss it intelligently.
Hi TS,
You have a nice looking website. I took your advice and opened the curtains in my dark dank cave.! Thanks.
I think it's apparent from your block quotes that the focus of liberal sophisticates is rhetoric. Their goal is to move public opinion, not get to the truth. Hence, the "fetus is like a tumor" argument. My heart aches, though, for people in general, who respond readily to carefully scripted rhetoric and fail to see the gross fallacies that are indoctrinating them. Look at all the euphemisms they use that people say without thinking," A women's right to choose," "fetus," "medical procedure," "back alley abortions,"
ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Keep raising the standard, TS, logic and reasoned discourse must prevail over liberal rhetoric.
I've enjoyed your input on my blog; I'm very glad to have come to yours. God Bless!
Funny, I had a discussion similar to this a month or so ago with a good friend of mine. He is a member of Mensa, very bright (and very arrogant) but with many good traits, as well.
Somehow or other, the subject of abortion came up. "Well, you're a highly intelligent woman, so obviously you're pro-abortion," he stated.
"Whoa there," I protested. "Because I'm intelligent I'm anti-abortion."
"You're not serious...?" he asked incredulously.
"Sure I am." I said. And I explained why.
The fetus is alive. Call it what you will, argue if there's a heart or set of lungs, but growth signals life. Rocks: not alive. Trees: alive. Cars: not alive. Puppies: alive.
He argued that if there is no mind and no heart, and it's merely in the zygote stage, the fetus won't know it even exists and therefore death won't affect it.
I wouldn't want to take my chances arguing that with a higher power. If it's alive, and human, I'm not messing with it.
He said that since a fetus cannot sustain itself outside of the uterus, it isn't a viable life. I answered that a baby isn't able to sustain itself once it was born, either.
I also pointed out that there are adult humans that have little to no functioning minds who can't sustain themselves, but we don't believe in killing them. Perhaps it will come to that some day, but for now we aren't living in the world of Logan's Run yet.
Saur;
Great retort!
I've not heard of Mensa. I'm going to do a Websurfing. Awesome! Dude!
I have a teen-age son; he rubs off on me.
Underground,
Thanks! Mensa is rather elitist for high IQ recipients only. I wouldn't recommend it. He wants my son and me to join it (I have other family members that are in it, too). It could be wonderful to meet others that are like-minded, but from the examples that I've seen, they are not always as bright as they should be, can be self-centered, and see others that don't have high IQs as slightly lesser beings.
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