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{"id":2576,"date":"2015-08-19T21:40:46","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T03:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=2576"},"modified":"2016-01-22T08:10:32","modified_gmt":"2016-01-22T14:10:32","slug":"if-youre-singerian-about-personhood-will-even-the-latest-video-perturb-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/08\/if-youre-singerian-about-personhood-will-even-the-latest-video-perturb-you.html","title":{"rendered":"If you’re Singerian about “personhood” will even the latest video perturb you?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Now, as a refresher, Peter Singer is the \u201cethicist\u201d who is most vocal and open about the belief that until a child has reached that stage of development where he begins to understand something about the world \u2014 as he puts it, they must possess \u201crationality, autonomy, and self-consciousness\u201d (see my post from mid-July<\/a> for more) that child is not a \u201cperson\u201d and there\u2019s nothing ethically wrong with killing him<\/strong>, even if our society for the moment happens to criminalize such killing if it happens after birth. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Seen in this way, there\u2019s nothing ethically wrong with what\u2019s going on at Planned Parenthood. \u00a0These unborn children have the moral worth of, perhaps, a dog or cat, and the apparent gruesomeness of what goes on at abortion clinics shouldn\u2019t mislead us into thinking that there\u2019s something ethically wrong with what\u2019s happening there, in the same way as some forms of research on lab animals, even \u201chuman-looking\u201d animals like chimps, might be \u201cgross\u201d but help provide cures.<\/p>\n

So:<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re convinced of this, will CMP videos shake you, unsettle you, lead you to rethink your position? \u00a0Or do you repeat to yourself, \u201ca nonperson\u2019s a nonperson, no matter how big\u201d over and over again, if you start to have doubts?<\/p>\n

And \u2014 how many prochoicers and Planned Parenthood supporters believe this? \u00a0How many believe \u201cby [my own] definition a fetus has no moral worth until [fill in the blank], so this is perfectly fine\u201d? \u00a0And how many are, instead, simply reluctant to think too hard about the matter because, in their minds, they see the impact of an unplanned pregnancy on a woman as so devastating that there simply must<\/em> be a way out? \u00a0(See fellow blogger Michael Novak<\/a> for a reflection here.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"