I saw this on FaceBook:
My response:
Just because you didn't think through the "conundrum" doesn't mean it exists. It's a common tactic for the villain to do a villainous thing and blame it on the hero. "And it will be YOUR fault," they say. NO. It's the VILLAIN'S fault. By posting this villainous pseudo-conundrum in which YOU take direct action, you choose to be a villain. The proof is above. It doesn't matter that you don't agree. ALL villains delude themselves into thinking they're the hero.
And the answer is, without hesitation: According to your scenario, you're going to drop ONE. I will try to save THE ONE YOU DROP. But if you drop either one, I will drop YOU, whether or not I manage to save one of the others. Still your choice.
To be perfectly clear about this scenario, you're willing to injure a baby to make a point. That's what terrorists do. I do NOT have to negotiate with terrorists. I do NOT have to play the villain's game. And I do NOT have to choose which evil you're going to commit for you. If you want to be the bad guy, suck it up, be the bad guy, and take the consequence. There's no outcome here where you're not on the wrong side of ethics and morals.
Everyone from Nazis to Islamic terrorists to the Green Goblin has tried this nonsensical argument. I don't play their evil, repugnant game.
This is no different from any hostage situation. Since they were very young, my sons knew that if such a situation arose, I'd tell the terrorist to put them on the line. I would then tell my boys, "I will avenge you." I'd expect them to do the same. The kidnapper would be made to know that he is responsible for their safe-keeping, and if any harm came to his victims, he would instantly lose all negotiating power and be utterly destroyed. Let the villain sort out whose lives they value. And always be prepared to face a no-win scenario with the knowledge that you can't save everyone, but you can dispense justice.
It wouldn't work every time... but if their tactic NEVER worked, they wouldn't do it at all.
I know there are some readers who might think I missed the point of the original argument, which was about abortion, not hostages. ABSOLUTELY NOT. If these people are willing to do that with an born infant, separated from the mother, it tells you everything you need to know about their character and the depths to which they would sink. They are evil to the core, and their choices reflect it. Neither do they have the self-awareness necessary to recognize that fact. Even in principle, they think it's valid to test your supposed hypocrisy against their desire to murder.
Don't let them do it. Call them out.
I think while I'm at this you might benefit from knowing my actual stance on abortion (as opposed to this crappy scenario). It might take a few words, but big deal. It's my blog.
I'm not taking anybody's choice from them. That's why I specifically insist on putting the choice back on the holder of the baby and the embryo. It's not I who choose FOR you. It's YOU who must make your own choices.
But "choice" does NOT just mean "have an abortion". One option isn't a "choice". You could choose to give life, to sacrifice, to sacrifice another to save yourself... it only seems easy if you've put sloganeering over real thought. The person who posted this scenario wanted this post to be thought-provoking. Fine. But that final "Now admit it" in the original post makes it clear that there's only one thought allowed, and I and one other were the only ones here not thinking as we were told to. Not asked. Not invited. Told.
And what we were told to think is bullshit. It's a bullshit exercise with a bullshit choice and a bullshit foregone conclusion. Anybody who can think can think around it and do laps around the people who were just told what to think.
I'll be quoting results of a survey made by Guttmacher Institute.
You're told to use phrases like "life of the mother", but this accounts for about half a percent of abortions. "Rape and incest" accounts for 1.5%. These are fringe cases argued only by those who don't have enough votes to make a difference. "Health concerns" -- some of which are significant, and others of which are far-fetched -- account for about 12%. Out of that 12% I was given two sons, whose mother didn't think twice about the CHOICE she made... to sacrifice some of her health to give them life. Other women her age would have made a different choice. That's the thing about choice. There's not just ONE, and anyone who -- whether directly, through implication, or silence -- would have you believe that it means just the one thing is a liar.
4% of respondents... more than rape and incest and imminent danger to the mother COMBINED... gave no reason at all for abortion. They just wanted it. That's a pathetically sad CHOICE. There's no one on Earth empowered to tell me I have to agree with or support such a decision. It's a shitty decision. But it's theirs to make without my support or agreement. Who DID get my support was my wife. She was mostly bedridden for the last decade, and I spent the better part of two decades caring for various maladies until she passed away a little over a week ago. She couldn't take care of herself, so I did. Other men might have made a different choice. I think if you make a promise you should f*cking keep it.
People love to quote "the science"... but the science is that the embryo is a different organism, with different genetics, often a different blood type from the mother. And the mother is a... well.. a mother. It has a biological meaning. Birth isn't parthenogenesis at the last possible instant. That embryo is not "the mother's body" until separation. This part IS NOT a choice. It's biology. It doesn't change with anyone's opinions. Go ahead, try to argue it. But bring citations. Facts, not opinions. See if you don't look the fool.
People love that word "viability". There are many, many people who believe it's a virtue to defend those who cannot defend themselves. For those who do, IF YOU TRIED you couldn't find a shittier, more vile reason to kill something than "it can't take care of itself." If you've ever wondered why you can't convince those folks, I've just revealed that mystery to you. What you hold as a virtue, they see as a vice.
But vices are often seen as virtues by those who have deluded themselves into thinking that sex mainly for pleasure. Ask an evolutionary biologist, if you could stand a little more science. Sex is for procreation; pleasure is a wonderful little evolutionary adaptation that keeps you interested in procreating. You want that thang, and there ARE gonna be babies. Those children are NOT a mere inconvenience. They're the purpose of the act. Pleasure ensures that even the dumbest people pass on their genes.
Intelligent people KNOW that. They don't go around deluding themselves, proclaiming the fantasy that a different organism is "their body" when it demonstrably isn't. They don't claim that the few percent of people with valid risks justify shitty behavior on the part of the overwhelming majority of people who demonstrably do NOT suffer those risks. Intelligent people take precautions. They prevent pregnancies while understanding that sex is an inherently risky business. They are selective with their choice of partners so that when risks are realized they can take responsibility for their actions and live up to those responsibilities. The very few people with legitimate need for abortion don't justify the vast majority who just want to make the same mistakes over and over again. Y'know... that thing called "insanity".
Idiots do delude themselves.
Idiots tell you the purpose of sex is for your own pleasure.
Idiots tell you it's ok to make the same mistakes over and over again. They don't even recognize them as mistakes.
Idiots are insane.
And they're running the asylum.
And everything they touch, they ruin. Stable homes, two-parent families, economic stability, even racial economic mobility are all disastrously affected by abortion.
While I won't tell you that you can't have an abortion, I don't have to agree with it, and I don't have to support it. I don't even have to make it easy. These tiny visitors... these little embryos that spring forth that abortionists think magically turn into people when a pair of scissors cuts an umbilical cord...
... they're people. They were people the whole time.
I don't care if you admit it.
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