The Pro-Life Movement's Problem With Morality

The Washington Dispatch ^ | June 6, 2003 | Cathryn Crawford

[kesg]

Don't need either alternative. Humanity is universally recognizable through our emotions such as empathy. If we value and nurture our ingrained desire to not see other recognizable humans in pain, then abortion will be a much less likely personal decision by women.

But the empathy is a consequence, result, or effect that stems from the prior intellectual recognition of the fact and great value of human life -- and that's where logic comes in. For a psychopath who believes intellectually that life is evil, an abortion should give him the very same warm fuzzy feeling you are describing here. Or, say, for the Nazis who believed, irrationally, that Jews were evil or subhuman, murdering six million of them and turning them into lampshades (or whatever) was no big deal.

[RAT Patrol]

Why does everyone treat morality like a bad thing?

[Cathryn Crawford]

Thank you!

It's only common sense.

[RAT Patrol]

Oh yeah, and it looks to me like everyone in politics has their own rooftop to shout from. We're not unique in that.

[gcruse]

Why does everyone treat morality like a bad thing?

A better question is, "Why does morality have such a bad name?"

[Cathryn Crawford]

I don't know. If you mean me, I didn't. I was simply saying that perhaps it's not the answer to changing people's minds on this issue.

[Hunble]

paterfamilias: The head of the family unit. His right to do as he pleased with the members of his family unit was rigidly protected by the laws of the Roman State.

Personally, I would execute my daughter for bringing shame upon my family.

Abortion? My daughter is very lucky she was not born 2,000 years ago!

[Teacher317]

You're never going to change someone's mind with your morality.

I believe that the world's major religions increase their number through proselytization (IIRC, Judaism does not, but the rest do). How is that anything but changing minds through moral example? Or do you want to argue that Jesus never changed anyone's mind without political lobbying?

[beckett]

Don't you think it is kind of creepy to root for cancer?

Nobody's "root[ing] for cancer." It's simply a matter of recognizing that when a highly traumatic insult to a woman's body is performed, one which directly interferes with the most complex systems in her body and in effect shuts down those systems just when they are gearing up to do the work they are designed to do, it's quite logical to suspect that those systems, in this case the nutrition supply system in the breast, may have an increased likelihood of experiencing a fundamental breakdown, i.e., cancer.

Some evidence now suggests that that suspicion may have a basis in fact. Pro-lifers point this out as a warning in the hope of avoiding increased breast cancer rates. For pro-choice activists the convenience of baby killing takes precedence over statistically dubious (in their view) threats to the mother's health.

[Clint N. Suhks]

He's not a liar and he's not a fool. He was just bringing a different issue for debate.

Hehehe...

[k2blader]

... too much time is spent on arguing about why abortion is wrong morally instead of why abortion is wrong logically.

Stating that abortion is morally wrong is not logical?

It seems that the mainstream religious pro-life movement is not so clear when it comes to reasons not to have an abortion beyond the basic arguments that it’s a sin and you’ll go straight to hell.

Is it sinful to murder? Yes. Will one go to hell for it ("it" being murder or any other sin)? Depends on whether or not one has accepted Christ as personal Saviour.

... sometimes, despite the rightness of the intentions, morality has to be left out of the game. Morality doesn’t bind everyone together. The only thing that does that is humanness and the logic of protecting ourselves.

Emphatically disagree.

Morality is the foundation of the pro-Life argument. It is because abortion is immoral that negative consequences follow.

[Lazamataz]

No, you're not. But you do ignore your friends, sometimes.

Oh, there there. Let me give you a hug.

What am I doing with my hand? Oooo, nothing, just ignore that.

Sure, everyone humps peoples legs when they are comforting one another.

You need to slip out of all that restrictive, stress-causing clothing. Here, let me help...

[Hunble]

Ancient Law?

Paterfamilias: The head of the family unit. His right to do as he pleased with the members of his family unit was rigidly protected by the laws of the Roman State.

Personally, I would execute my daughter for bringing shame upon my family.

Abortion? My daughter is very lucky she was not born 2,000 years ago!

[johnb838]

Was it wrong for Hitler to gas the Jews?

That depends...

[MHGinTN]

Unborn babies' bodies?... Just like the poor ignored Iraqis. It's that uterus that is strategic, and the Iraqis, er, I mean, the babies can fend for themselves. [Imagine what 'every man, er , bee for himself' would mean to honey production!]

[Lazamataz]

Wherefore charm?

Oh come on. Admit it.

Or I will sing "I'm Henry the Eighth I am" over and over again.

[Teacher317]

I wonder what Gen. Patton would have done had you "comforted" him so warmly.

[najida]

Good article CC. Thank you. You will not convince people of an argument based solely on morality.

Amen.

[Clint N. Suhks]

A better question is, "Why does morality have such a bad name?"

Heretics and reprobates like you?