Friday, June 05, 2009

Dr. Tiller: Saint Or Killer?

According to the Bill O'Reilly's and the Randal Terry's of the world, Dr. Tiller was a "killer". In repeating this meme, they contributed to the doctor's murder. But for others Dr. Tiller was an iconic figure, a courageous health care worker who provided a service that few others offered in a country that bought the demonization of "late term abortion" part and parcel. Here are two interesting articles from the latter camp, painting a much more human portrait of the late Dr. Tiller: The Compassion Of Dr. Tiller, by Michelle Goldberg, and The Truth About Abortion Reduction, by Sarah Posner.

Whatever you think of abortion, it is legal, highly regulated, and subject to severe restrictions (much more so, for example, than guns, another staple of the same crowd that claims to defend the culture of life). It seems to me that too many people, on both ends of the abortion debate spectrum, do not have a complete and impartial view of the issue. I, for one, would appreciate the opportunity to be educated by arguments appealing to reason rather than emotion.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Slavery was legal too. Whether the argument is emotional or rational, doesn't change how wrong it is.

Emotion has its place. Otherwise that 3,000 people were killed on 911 remains a statistic, and not a tragedy.

Unknown said...

3,000 people were killed on 911 - this is a statistic. The fact that it was also a tragedy appeals to emotion. Which component matters more? Emotion is how we gauge whether something matters - it can be used or misused, just like statistics.

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