I think the headline question I pose here gets to the heart of the moral issue embedded here.
You might be able to think of an even better question.
We Westerners live in a weird and worrying world.
Added: Counter-balancing comment below. Also see this from the Washington Post.
5 comments:
This article, from a catholic perspective, seems more nuanced and examines the whole three hours of footage. As for "is it right to kill babies to prolong adult lives?" - this is the heart of the ethical dilemma when an abortion is recommended to save the mother's life. As the America magazine article makes clear, tissue harvest from abortion is never the reason for an abortion. http://americamagazine.org/content/all-things/outrage-over-planned-parenthood-video-review-unedited-footage
Hi Jemma
Thanks for a balancing contribution to this difficult question!
There appears a chain of culpability:
Lying to the women, even if the concept of organ donation may ease their distress about what they have chosen.
Obtaining any money at all for organs which have been pledged to be donated, not to be justified by being a not-for-profit.
The existence of the 'middle-man' who obtains the body parts and sells them (I would imagine for quite a profit) to research companies.
Research companies some of who I would take a stab carry out research to make products which in turn make them a degree of money.
It comes across clearly that decision by women to have an abortion in the first place is an independent process and there is no payments to individuals and this is a relief; differentiating it from the more perverse forms of organs harvesting.
Two moral and ethical issues appear from a Christian perspective:
Abortion is legal but often the way the procedure is describes denies the existence of life, is it murder in the eyes of God? - admitting in some cases the choice can be more complicated as Jemma points out above.
Medical research can benefit from organ donations BUT donations by the very word are without cost, and given in order to benefit the public or a specific individual, don't all organisations involved in this area have the moral responsibility to ensure this?
Oh dear, dear, Peter. Have we now descended into pornography. I would not have dignified this abortion article with even a passing mention. Surely there is something less sensational to report on in the blogosphere? Off to 'THINKING Anglicans' now, for something more a little less scandalous.
Quote my last comment: "...more a little less scandalous".
Oh dear, on re-reading my comment, I realise I must be suffering from Continental Fever.
Here in the lovely mediaeval city of Bruges, Belgium, the weather is so up and down it must be affecting my intellectual equilibrium. However, after reading the latest public statement by the ABC, on Religious Freedom, I'm less sure of the (metaphorical) ground we Anglicans are trying to occupy. How compelling are our public statements, anyway? The more I read in the Anglican blogosphere, the less certain I become of the change we think we are able to bring about in the Church and the world we live in.
Today's Sung Mass in the local Roman Catholic church Here in Bruges - with the discreet accompaniment of Gregorian plainchant, incense and in a foreign language, all helped Diana and me to recognise the place of our world Anglicanism in the great scheme of things in all creation. Deo gratias!
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