It was the dumbest thing I saw all weekend.
From an article in Salon boasting that it had the one question that exposes all the hypocrisy of anyone who is pro-life: the question, from former fetus Patrick Tomlinson:
Would you save one 5-year-old child from a burning building, or save 1,000 embryos?
The author of the article then raises his nose in the air and says: No one actually thinks that embryos are the same as living children. But an entire movement is based on lying about it, and using that lie to manipulate people, in order to control women like slaves.
Good Lord, in heaven, is this the best the pro-choice side has? This is all they got?
Tomlinson claims that he’s yet to meet anyone in ten years who has answered the question honestly. Well, he’s talked to a lot of dumb people then.
Of course the answer is simple: you save the child. But not because the thousand embryos are not living. Or not worth saving.
His question doesn’t prove a thing, except that we humans live in a world where complex moral decisions must be made every day.
Yesterday in church, Compassion International handed out photos of orphaned children from around the world who needed sponsorship. $38 a month can save the life of one of these children. But in choosing one child from the dozens of others, a person is not denying the value of the other children.
If I had to rush into a burning building and had to choose between saving my wife and another person, I’m sorry but I’ll choose my wife. It sucks to have to make such a choice. But it doesn’t deny the life and value of the other.
Put that same embryo in the womb of an expectant mother, then pretend that it miscarries. If it’s not alive, then why does one mother experience profound grief and another profound relief? Because it’s life, which if cherished, preserved, protected and nurtured would do what life does: grow into a fully formed human being.
Which is why when we treat an embryo as casually as shoe leather, it diminishes us all. It dehumanizes us. It endangers us.
Salon, come back in another ten years, and see if you’ve got something better to add to the conversation. In the meantime, I’ll err on the side of life.
