An offhand comment from Amanda, possibly elicited by an opinion expressed by one of the big-titted blondes on "Housewives of Orange County," reminds me that I have a hard time comprehending the pro-life position. They don't like abortion, I get that. But have they really thought it through? Many of them allow for some exceptions to a general abortion prohibition--sexual assault, for example, and health of the mother. But the arguments they advance for prohibiting abortion in every other circumstance should apply to these as well. If a fetus is a person as surely as anyone with a social security number, then killing it to preserve the mother's health should not be allowed. Regarding abortion after a sexual assault: it's like capital punishment for someone whose only crime is having a sexual predator for a father.
By being opposed to abortion, ever and always, in any imaginable circumstance, the elderly robed virgins of the Roman Catholic Church achieve a kind of consistency. But this is where the bumper-sticker put-downs come into view. Not every sperm deserves a name. Unfair? Well, the argument does seem to involve a regress that the pro-lifer simply terminates at a convenient point in order not to appear ridiculous. That "life begins at conception" means there can be no compromise with the view that the claims of the fetus on our moral attention advance with the pregnancy. But why is conception the magical moment? By what logic might it be permissible to use contraceptives? And, for those who are against contraception, on what principle can one ever decide not to have sex? Doesn't the decision to use contraception, or to choose not to have sex, deny the gift of life to what otherwise could have been an adorable little Tommy or Sue?
Then there are the thought experiments involving pro-lifers at the fertility farm, where a sudden conflagration threatens the lives of all God's children in the building. If his 3-year-old has wandered off somewhere, should he search for it, or grab a few dozen stored, frozen embryos? (He knows he can save their precious lives before the burning roof falls.)
Yes, I am being facetious. But how can they tell? I know why I'd look for the 3-year-old. But why would they?
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