Written by Really? I thought that’s what pro-lifers have been saying for the last little while, but don’t trust us! Trust the experts!
Seriously, though, this article in the British Medical Journal is callous. It really goes to show what kind of mentality arises when there is no respect for life. What stood out for me is that for a medical journal article there is a lot of talk about “personhood”, which is really a philosophical issue instead of a scientific one. And in terms of verbal gymnastics, check out this little somersault on the issue:
we propose to call this practice ‘after-birth abortion’, rather than ‘infanticide’,
to emphasise that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus (on which ‘abortions’ in the traditional sense are performed) rather than to that of a child.
Disgusting. In order to feel better about the killing of a newborn they use the euphemism of “after-birth abortion” rather than “infanticide”. Not only does it lessen the personhood of the newborn, it sounds nicer too. Win Win! Again, I ask why is there talk of moral status of an individual in a scientific journal? How can you perform experiments in a lab regarding personhood?
Science already has a term to describe a fetus, a newborn and a child: Human life.
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Abortion is generally talked about in philosophical/religious terms rather than scientific. People are not for or against abortion simply because they understand the biological facts of human life. No, they take positions about it based on competing values and needs. For example, “I am pregnant, but my doctor says that the pregnancy is likely to be seriously harmful to my own life. So I choose to have an abortion.” Or, “I am pregnant, but my priest says that it is against God’s will to have an abortion. So I will keep the pregnancy.” Scientific issues rarely ever enter in, except to develop a rational for making a choice one way or another.
The problem is that the scientific ignorance that justifies the killing of pre-born human beings are often the very means used to dehumanize the victims of abortion. Most people have a deep-seated resistance to killing other human beings, but when we convince ourselves that a pre-born child isn’t really a human being, it’s easier to kill them.
Absolutely every single time I engage in a public activism project and talk to people about abortion on the streets or on campus, I hear this line of argument from at least half the people I encounter. “Well, it’s just a potential life.” “It’s not really human yet.” The other day, from a high school student, “that can’t be accurate! they don’t have arms or legs!” etc etc etc.
We need to combat dehumanizing rationalizations that justify killing other human beings.