tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253865779660854699.post8267231333454310553..comments2023-10-15T09:36:12.013+01:00Comments on Countercultural Father: Still thinking about it...Ben Trovatohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15299230935468606845noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253865779660854699.post-75867026687100159822012-11-28T08:57:08.224+00:002012-11-28T08:57:08.224+00:00When the truth is so comprehensively denied what r...When the truth is so comprehensively denied what real alternative is there to the simple presentation of the facts in visual form?<br /><br />We live in a visual age- Cctv footage is used to convict burglars and corrupt policemen. How does a refusal to broadcast photographic evidence protect the human dignity of those whose dignity has already been completely trashed by their having been already brutally murdered?Patriciushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08906131174326742939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253865779660854699.post-67091985620640771282012-11-28T01:54:36.106+00:002012-11-28T01:54:36.106+00:00Like you I oscillate on this one.
On the question...Like you I oscillate on this one.<br /><br />On the question of children, I admit that I wouldn't like my eldest to see these images, my eldest is particularly sensitive. I have a leaflet with an image of a deceased 24 week baby, killed then delivered intact. As you can imagine, having given birth to 3 babies in the past 3 years, it is far too close to home.<br /><br />The images strike a visceral note, particularly amongst pregnant and post-natal women and do need to be used with care. I guess that testifies to their effectiveness but if I'm honest, even as an informed pro-lifer, I couldn't cope with them in pregnancy and struggle with them now.<br /><br />When it comes to the issue of schools, Andy Stephenson has been very successful with presentations in schools locally. Although data would be useful to quantify reactions, most pro-choice schools boycott when they hear that A67 have visited a certain school. The students emerge aghast at what they have witnessed and convinced as to the horror that is abortion. Showing teens the graphic videos makes abortiom very hard to justify. It forces the pro-choicers to come up with sound ethical arguments as to why killing unborn babies is acceptable and shows the realities beyond the vague and reassuring clinical language. Removal of the products of conception is witnessed for what it is.<br /><br />Recently an amazing young man who leads some of the London 40DFL vigils said to me that he wondered whether or not I was projecting my horror onto my children. He grew up surrounded by these images and though still heartbroken over abortion, they never caused any psychological damage, but steepened his resolve. blondpidgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12631604905862504882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253865779660854699.post-49044978328101098012012-11-28T00:46:47.553+00:002012-11-28T00:46:47.553+00:00Still thinking about this, which for me could take...Still thinking about this, which for me could take a bit. <br /><br />I am aware of the "dignity" assertion and I am not willing to concede that it is indeed a violation of the dignity of the dead to show these pictures. Maybe it is, but I have not advanced to that point yet.<br /><br />I might scour my back-issues of the Human Life Review; this topic has come up many times in print as you can imagine.<br /><br />Let's say for the moment it is perfectly moral to do this. I would think that if "millions" of people have seen these images, and they are as effective as Cunningham asserts, then there should be tangible results. <br /><br />I find it hard to believe that no pro-life or pro-abortion group has commissioned a study to determine what the effects are of showing graphic images to people in either camp, or neutral. Maybe I will dig around a bit.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-253865779660854699.post-61388047262453740152012-11-28T00:00:37.826+00:002012-11-28T00:00:37.826+00:00My very quick thoughts:
I think first we need to ...My very quick thoughts:<br /><br />I think first we need to ask what it means to 'help the unborn'. We have to remember that although the pro-life case is not primarily a philosophical or academic argument, but an effort to build a culture of life. There is no point convincing expectant mothers that the child in their womb is a person from its conception if they are simply not receiving the material, financial or social support to raise that child. It is a purely pyrrhic victory.<br /><br />I think the first point of Cunningham's you mention is verging on a tu quoque. The authentically pro-life response to a violation of a person's dignity is not to prolong that indignity further by publicising it, and turning that tragedy into an (ineptly wielded) tool. If life begins at conception, then so does our responsibility to value and respect that life. <br /><br />Your analogy with the murder suggests graphic images serve a practical purpose. But as I say, when 98% of abortions are performed under Ground C - in other words, when the abortion is seen by the mother to be her only option, due to by a lack of a support structure, a lack of money to care for the child, an abusive or controlling partner, or social stigma, what purpose do they serve?<br /><br /> The idea of the average woman seeking an abortion as a naive teenager is false: many of the women who come to these clinics are older, have been through pregnancy and childbirth already; they know about foetal development, they know what their child looks like at ten, twelve, fourteen weeks gestation. They know what abortion entails. They feel they don't have an alternative.<br /><br />Of course we must tell the truth. But the salient truth here is that life is valuable from its very beginning, and should be protected and supported from its very beginning: we can uphold that truth in a way that practically assists mothers, and does not exploit the suffering of unborn children.<br /><br />I've written in more detail on graphic images here: http://whistlingsentinel.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/graphic-images-in-clinic-protests/ <br /><br />MeganAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09387063483667106438noreply@blogger.com