Have you ever marched for the pro-choice movement? Perhaps you’ve campaigned along side the pro-lifers. Maybe you’ve kept your thoughts on the subject to yourself, but chances are you know which side you’d take.
Like opinions on Donald Trump, gun control and the Taylor Swift vs Kanye West debate, logical and rational thinking tends to take a back seat when it comes to allowing a woman her right to choose what she does with her body.
Abortion is as hot a topic as ever, and whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, there is seemingly no room for compromises. Clashes between the two groups have rarely led to changed opinions on the subject, but one man says he may have come up with a way to end the debate.
Patrick S. Tomlinson is a science fiction author, comedian, and journalist who has posed a single question to his twitter followers that he says destroys the pro-life movement. His post has since gone viral.
For the question, he sets up a plausible scenario with a multiple choice answer:
“Here it is. You’re in a fertility clinic. Why isn’t important. The fire alarm goes off. You run for the exit. As you run down this hallway, you hear a child screaming from behind a door. You throw open the door and find a five-year-old child crying for help.”
“They’re in one corner of the room. In the other corner, you spot a frozen container labeled ‘1000 Viable Human Embryos.’ The smoke is rising. You start to choke. You know you can grab one or the other, but not both before you succumb to smoke inhalation and die, saving no one.”
“Do you A) save the child, or B) save the thousand embryos? There is no ‘C.’ ‘C’ means you all die.”
Simple, right? But Tomlinson claims that he’s been asking the question for years to the pro-life crowd and that no one has ever been able to answer it because it obliterates their argument.
He followed up his question by addressing the pro-life movement:
“They will never answer honestly, because we all instinctively understand the right answer is ‘A.’ A human child is worth more than a thousand embryos. Or ten thousand. Or a million. Because they are not the same, not morally, not ethically, not biologically.
…This question absolutely evicerates their arguments, and their refusal to answer confirms that they know it to be true.
No one, anywhere, actually believes an embryo is equivalent to a child. That person does not exist. they are lying to you.”
He continues to explain that pro-lifers use emotion rather than logic to form the basis of their argument.
“They are lying to you to try and evoke an emotional, a paternal response, using false-equivalency.
No one believes life begins at conception. No one believes embryos are babies, or children. Those who claim are trying to manipulate you so they can control women.”
“Don’t let them. Use this question to call them out. Reveal them for what they are. Demand they answer your question, and when they don’t, slap that big ol’ Scarlet P of the Patriarchy on them.”
Mic. Dropped.
Tomlinson received a lot of criticism on twitter for his posts but managed to shut down all of the haters. No one has managed to come up with a succinct argument for saving the embryos and letting the child die.
So what do you think? Option ‘A’ or ‘B’? Chances are now I can guess which one you’ll choose!
The debate about abortion will continue to go on for hundreds of years. But let’s look back at the history of abortion in the US, all the way up to Trump.
Src: www.viralthread.com
