{"id":629,"date":"2009-02-11T22:16:27","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T02:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/?p=629"},"modified":"2013-12-31T09:01:17","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T13:01:17","slug":"biosled-anti-abortion-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/biosled-anti-abortion-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"BioSLED &#8211; best argument against abortion-choice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em>This is the best rational argument against abortion I&#8217;ve found to date. Every counter-argument comes right back to these same human rights issues, and is thus refutable.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Everyone concedes abortion kills something. The crucial question is \u201cwhat is killed?\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If the unborn are not human, no justification for elective abortion is necessary. But if the unborn are human, no justification for elective abortion is adequate. (Koukl,\u00a0<em>Precious Unborn Human Persons,<\/em>\u00a0p.\u00a07)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Morally, it&#8217;s wrong to kill innocent human beings.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-683\" title=\"thumbsucker\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/thumbsucker.jpg\" alt=\"thumbsucker\" width=\"160\" height=\"223\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We base that morality on three factors:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Intrinsic value of human beings &#8211; an intangible quality.<\/li>\n<li>Common nature of human flesh and blood &#8211; biological evidence of Law of Biogenesis, uniqueness of DNA &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ehd.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">embryological\/anatomical science<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The equality of common physical attributes of human beings &#8211;\u00a0Size, Level of Development, Environment, and Degree of Dependency\u00a0(SLED).\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If we do not morally discriminate against human beings outside the womb with these attributes (we treat them equally as humans under the law) then such conclusions also apply to pre-born human beings because:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Size &#8211;\u00a0Hillary Clinton is not less human than\u00a0Shaquille O&#8217;Neal. An embryo is not less human than a newborn.<\/li>\n<li>Level of Development &#8211; Toddlers are less developed than pre-adolescents who are less developed than adults. An embryo is the organ development stage of a human being while in the next stage, a fetus&#8217;s organs mature, just as an adolescent&#8217;s organs mature through puberty. \u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Environment &#8211; Astronauts and scuba divers do not lose their human nature in non-supportive environments. \u00a0A womb is the natural environment for the pre-born at their level of development. Exposing human beings to unnatural, uninhabitable environments is an act of murder.<\/li>\n<li>Dependency &#8211; We don&#8217;t kill those who depend upon us. Infants depend upon parents\/guardians for all their primary needs. Our dependencies extend to each other, and without the defense of the goodness of meeting human dependencies, none of us would be alive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Discussing pro-life views shouldn&#8217;t be a monologue. Provide your reasoning, but also ask others questions to bring them into conversation.  Seek points you agree on; ask why they are important. Establish <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/common-ground-without-compromise\/\" target=\"_blank\">common ground<\/a> before refuting  objections.  Your response will then be appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s how to refute two very common objections to BioSLED: 1) Non-Personhood and 2) Mother&#8217;s Rights.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/biosled-non-personhood-arguments\/\" target=\"_blank\">Refuting Non-Personhood Arguments<\/a> &#8211; such arguments deny the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/2008\/02\/loaves-lives\/\" target=\"_blank\">intrinsic quality of human beings<\/a> by falsely assuming <em>(petitio principii) <\/em> two components <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/bodyself-to-who-am-i-speaking\/\" target=\"_blank\">(body and person)<\/a>, instead of one. These are a play on Level of Development. Gently ask: <strong>&#8220;Would you be willing to undergo the same destruction of your body that is performed on the unborn during an abortion, and if not &#8211; why?&#8221;<\/strong> They can&#8217;t prove their own personhood without referring to their own physical body, so gently question them until they do. We know scientifically from the moment of conception the pre-born also has a human body. We can&#8217;t establish tests for denying the  rights of pre-born human beings that we, who also have human flesh and blood, are unwilling to take &#8211; that&#8217;s discrimination. Refuting this works best in-person, not over the Internet.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/biosled-handling-bodily-autonomy-abortion-arguments\/\" target=\"_blank\">Refuting Bodily Autonomy Arguments<\/a> (aka Mother&#8217;s Rights) &#8211; some argue gestation is a special right granted by the mother. This goes back to Dependency. We don&#8217;t kill those who are dependent upon us. Some argue biological dependency is different, but this falsely assumes <em>(petitio principii) <\/em>the responsibility to be humane can have exceptions because an innocent human being is undeniably killed. Further, such killing is an act of commission, meaning the violence of abortion is a direct appeal to force <em>(argumentum ad baculum)<\/em> on the mother&#8217;s behalf.  Specifically, force is appealed to based on the victim&#8217;s Environment &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/bodily-autonomy-rights-1\/\" target=\"_blank\">the natural location in the womb of the child&#8217;s mother<\/a>. We wouldn&#8217;t want anyone we were dependent upon to justify killing us because we existed in an environment they claimed.\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Although BioSLED is an exceptionally strong argument against abortion, it needs to be conveyed gracefully, and the best way to do that is in person in a non-threatening way.  Those who defend abortion usually do so for very personal reasons.  So no matter how logical, the heart has to change.<\/p>\n<p>This argument is like a very sharp Japanese Samurai sword &#8211; it is not meant to be handled without great discipline, respect or care for the other person. Use it only in love.<\/p>\n<p>If you find this valuable &#8211; please link to it.  If you think it needs improvement &#8211; let me know in the comments.  Thanks!<\/p>\n<p>This argument is based on the work of Scott Klusendorf of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prolifetraining.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Life Training Institute<\/a>, Greg Koukl of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.str.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Stand to Reason<\/a>, Francis Beckwith&#8217;s <em>Defending Life<\/em> and the SLED acronym came from Stephen Schwarz who wrote\u00a0<em>The Moral Question of Abortion.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we do not morally discriminate against human beings outside the womb with these attributes (we treat them equally as humans under the law) then such conclusions also apply to pre-born human beings because:<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/biosled-anti-abortion-argument\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[9,199,106,24],"class_list":["post-629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","tag-abortion","tag-biosled","tag-debate","tag-pro-life"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1942,"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629\/revisions\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thrufire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}