then stop telling pro-lifers they're wrong to enter the public debate. Argue against them all you want, show them to be as irrational you believe them to be, persuade them to change their minds. Just don't tell them they don't have any place in the public debate--because it's pointless. If they're right about the beginning of life, then it's not cruel.
As for "It's a baby and it takes precedence" dehumanizing women?, I have to say, "Oh, come on!" No one's talking about killing the pregnant woman for the sake of her fetus. They're saying, "You don't have the right to kill your child." The dehumanization involved in saying, "Your mother gets to decide to kill you" isn't just blatant, it's explicit. The entire pro-choice argument is based on the idea that the mother is a person, and the fetus is not. You can't uphold the right to self-determination as the standard when you're trying to remove that right from someone else.
In a nutshell: The right of one person to live does take precedence over the right of another to financial security, emotional health, or physical health. The right of self-determination doesn't favor either party unless the fetus is not a person--and if you prove that to someone, you're done, there's no need to argue further.
"Birth is a concrete dividing line between fetus and infant. It is clearly demarcated and easily defined." OK, how about, "83 days after birth"? That's just as clear. How about, "anyone with black hair and flat feet"? I don't see the rationality in birth as the dividing line because I don't see how a movement through space can possibly infer personhood.
One should never assume that one's argument is right. One should prove it. But now I'm being pedantic. I wasn't criticizing you for think that you're right. I was talking about your argument that it's cruel to impose pro-life views. That only makes sense if those pro-life views are wrong--so you can't expect anyone to buy it unless they already agree with you on beginning of life. In which case, what was the point of saying it in the first place? |
