{"id":40668,"date":"2013-09-17T07:16:23","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T11:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=40668"},"modified":"2013-09-17T08:10:29","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T12:10:29","slug":"abortion-argument-based-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-argument-based-emotion\/","title":{"rendered":"On abortion: An argument based on emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"00adorable-baby-blue-blue-eye-blue-eyes-cap-favim-com-65142\"<\/a>An intelligent young Christian once told me he did not know if elective abortion was wrong, even in the second trimester.\u00a0 He needed to do more research on the issue, he explained, because he did not want to make a decision based on emotion.<\/p>\n

I have two problems with this approach.<\/p>\n

First, the idea that the abortion question\u00a0 will be decided by research is very naive.\u00a0 For example, consider the two scholars Alberto Giubilini\u00a0and Francesca Minerva, who recently wrote an article in the distinguished Journal of Medical Ethics<\/em> entitled, “After Birth Abortion:\u00a0 Why Should the Baby Live?”<\/a>\u00a0 In this article, these scholars argue that parents should be allowed to kill their child, not only in the second trimester, but even after birth.<\/p>\n

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Now what is the problem here?\u00a0 Do Giubilini and Minerva simply need to do more research?\u00a0 Would reading a textbook on fetal development make them pro-life?\u00a0 Probably not.\u00a0 The abortion question cannot be resolved so easily.\u00a0 The facts of fetal development are widely published and well-known, and yet the debate rages on, even in academia.<\/p>\n

But what if Giubilini or Minerva was standing with a scalpel in hand, looking down on an unwanted infant squirming on the table?\u00a0 Would these scholars have the heart to put their philosophy into practice?\u00a0 Let us hope not.\u00a0 Let us hope that their emotions would stop them.<\/p>\n

This brings me to my second contention.\u00a0 Not only is my friend mistaken in his high view of research, he is also mistaken in his low view of emotion.\u00a0 As illustrated by Giubilini and Minerva, emotion may do more to lead a person to the truth than research ever can.\u00a0 Put another way, emotion is like a built-in alarm bell that lets us know when something in our logic has gone terribly wrong.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, consider once again this video, which I have posted in my articles numerous times. \u00a0This is a second trimester abortion:<\/p>\n