Persuasive Pro Life: How to Talk About Our Culture's Toughest Issue by Trent Horn

Author:Trent Horn [Horn, Trent]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Religion, Christianity, Catholic, Christian Life, General, Religion & Science
ISBN: 9781941663042
Google: BOV4oAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1941663044
Publisher: Catholic Answers
Published: 2014-10-01T06:00:00+00:00

8

The Autonomists

During a JFA outreach at the University of Northern Colorado, I watched a conversation between one of our pro-life volunteers and a pro-choice student I’ll call Carrie. They seemed to be discussing the one question that matters most: “What are the unborn?” Carrie said abortion should be legal because a fetus is totally dependent on a woman’s body. The volunteer recognized the “D” in SLED and said, “Okay, so dependency is what matters to you. But what if a two-year-old fell into a swimming pool, and he was totally dependent on you to live? Would it be okay to kill him by not saving him?”

“That’s different,” Carrie said. “The two-year-old isn’t inside your body.”

“Okay, so it’s environment [the “E” in SLED] that matters,” the volunteer said. “But how can a change of location make you a non-person?”

“You’re not listening!” Carrie shouted. “If it’s in her body and needs her in order to live, then abortion is okay.”

“But how can you say someone isn’t human based on his environment or degree of dependency?”

After seeing Carrie’s impatience turn into outright anger, I stepped into the conversation. While the volunteer was making good arguments, those points were not relevant to what Carrie actually believed.

“I think you may have misunderstood Carrie,” I told the volunteer. “She never said the unborn weren’t human, she merely said abortion was okay.” I turned to Carrie and said, “Carrie, is this your argument? It doesn’t matter whether the unborn are human or not. What matters is that women have a fundamental right to control what happens within their bodies, and therefore abortion should be legal for that reason.”

“Yes!” Carrie said. “That’s my argument.”

Three pro-choice arguments

Up to this point we have examined three types of pro-choice people. First, there are the pragmatists who assume the unborn are not human beings. They argue that abortion should be legal, because women need abortion in order to resolve difficult life circumstances. But the pragmatic arguments for abortion fail, since we don’t make it legal to kill human beings merely to satisfy other people’s needs.

The second type of pro-choice argument actually argues, or uses evidence and reasoning, to show the unborn are not human beings. If the unborn are as human as sperm cells, then abortion would not be homicide, and there would be no reason to outlaw it. The skeptic does not take a position on the humanity of the unborn and thinks abortion should be legal since “no one knows when life begins.” But the arguments from biology in Chapter 6 show there is no doubt the unborn are at least biological human beings. Even if we weren’t sure if the unborn were human beings, that is an argument against killing the unborn, since we shouldn’t kill something that could be a valuable human being.

In lieu of the skeptic’s abstention, the disqualifier said we know the unborn are not persons because they don’t have the qualities we associate with “persons.” However, the differences summarized in the SLED acronym are as morally trivial as race or sex.

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