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Mar. 14th, 2005 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
addersljWhen did western culture become so moronic? Why has debate reached the point where the only option seems to be "pick a side and defend its values until the death"?
Take abortion. Abortion is one of the terrible, hard decisions we as a society have to face regularly.
The facts are these: there will always be unwanted pregnancies and women will always seek to end them in some fashion. However, doing so ends the existence of something that will, without intervention, become a human being.
This is actually simple to grasp, yet the debate is dominated by two groups, one of which is unwilling to deal with the reality of backstreet abortions and the human cost of unwanted children, while the other is unwilling to countenance for a second that an abortion might be taking the life of a human being (or that there might be serious emotional consequences for the mother further down the line).
So there we have it, one of the most serious ethical dilemmas our society has to face, and it's reduced to a shouting match between two groups of morons. There are people who are pro-life and people who are pro-choice, but precious few who are pro-thought.
Really, I hope there are better sentient species than us out there somewhere, because we're not using this gift of intelligence terribly well right now.
Take abortion. Abortion is one of the terrible, hard decisions we as a society have to face regularly.
The facts are these: there will always be unwanted pregnancies and women will always seek to end them in some fashion. However, doing so ends the existence of something that will, without intervention, become a human being.
This is actually simple to grasp, yet the debate is dominated by two groups, one of which is unwilling to deal with the reality of backstreet abortions and the human cost of unwanted children, while the other is unwilling to countenance for a second that an abortion might be taking the life of a human being (or that there might be serious emotional consequences for the mother further down the line).
So there we have it, one of the most serious ethical dilemmas our society has to face, and it's reduced to a shouting match between two groups of morons. There are people who are pro-life and people who are pro-choice, but precious few who are pro-thought.
Really, I hope there are better sentient species than us out there somewhere, because we're not using this gift of intelligence terribly well right now.
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difficult issues...
Date: 2005-03-14 06:05 pm (UTC)In the US, as other folks have said, this is particularly hot-button because the same people who oppose all abortions, under any circumstances, are also the ones that think abstinence-only is the only way sex ed should be taught to teenagers (also forbidding any discussion of condoms or other birth control methods except to say how they don't work). It tends to feel like they would rather punish the girl for having sex than prevent either unwanted pregnancies, abortions or STDs. And of course, we don't have any kind of national health care, so there's a high chance a woman has no health insurance to support her either before or after the birth.
It's also a fact that the nations that have the highest abortion rates are those where it is illegal, and the ones with the lowest are those where both birth control and abortion are readily available. So it would follow that to really reduce the number of abortions overall, having reliable and easily accessible birth control would go a long way.... but that would be admitting that people have sex, including people who are not married, poor, already have children, or are under the age of 18.
As you said, the discussion is so rooted in emotional issues that it's bypassing rationality most of the time.