Tweets from a pro-choicer

[Sbee0]

I found this thread of tweets. How would you respond?

“ Whenever abortion comes up, I have a question l’ve been asking for ten years now of the “Life begins at Conception” crowd. In ten years, no one has EVER answered it honestly.

It’s a simple scenario with two outcomes. No one ever wants to pick one, because the correct answer destroys their argument. And there IS a correct answer, which is why the pro-life crowd hates the question.

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. In a decade of arguing with anti-abortion people about the definition of human life, I have never gotten a single straight A or B answer to this question. And I never will.

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.

They are lying to you to try and evoke an emotional response, a paternal response, using false-equivalency. No one believes life begins at conception. No one believes embryos are babies or children. Those who cliam to are trying to manipulate you so they can control women.”

Forget about the factual flaws like “How big is the fire” or “Those embryos are in a container that could survive” or so on.

I’ve seen this before. It’s not a thought experiment at all - it’s a disingenuous attempt at a gotcha question, proving yet again that that many on the pro choice side have their talking points without really critically thinking about them.

No different than me changing the players in this scenario to one where there’s a train track, and the dilemma of two African American children stuck on the track with a slow moving train approaching. A heavy white man is on the platform and you know that if you push the heavy man on the track it is certain he will be killed but his weight is guaranteed to stop the train and save the children.

The conclusion to be drawn in parallel with the original argument is your choice not to push the man on the track means you valued the life of the white man more and thus you a racist…which of course is complete nonsense.

 

[on_the_hill]

In that case, you gotta respect a philosophy of peace through strength. Especially since both sides understood.

 

[gregoryphealy]

Ben Shapiro’s response to this “dilemma” was pretty insightful.

 

[Axsenex]

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

I guess that’s where he ended up choosing in the end.

 

[PennyinCanada]

You are on the Titanic and it’s going down. You are alone and have 2 life jackets. You put it on, and with one left you look around to see who should get it. You spot a pregnant woman with a 5 year old. What do you do?
You take yours off and save them both.

I posted this yesterday and today there is a post of a Catholic priest who gave his lifejacket to a friend to save him, and lost his life by drowning…

News: Catholic priest drowns in River Niger after giving life jacket to save friend Spirituality

see https://abujareporters.com.ng/rev-f...-giving-his-life-jacket-to-a-friend-see-pics/ “According to a report by Azubike Okwuoto Imoka, an eyewitness revealed that the Rev.Father’s friend was in the same boat with him when the incident happened and because he gave his life jacket to his friend, he was helpless when the boat capsized.”

I don’t know what kind of courage that must have taken. Certainly a heart full of love.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

I appreciate those that answered the challenge. I’ve seen this before, always accompanied by a comment that no pro-lifers would answer it. I wanted to post it it here and compare notes but I’m glad I didn’t because the defensive reactions here are what I expected. Call it a “gotcha” question or whatever but I think we should be prepared to answer dilemmas no matter how unlikely. I say this as someone who posed a real life pro-life dilemma to this forum a long time ago and received mostly unhelpful replies. Again, kudos to those who were game and and answered the question.

 

[Questioner13]

I have come across both the thought experiment and those miscarriage statistics before and the miscarriage numbers in particular are a key point.

I’ll state straight up that I would save the 5 year old. No question.

Because if a fertilised egg is a person, and 75 per cent of fertilised eggs fail, then any couple trying to conceive is proceeding in reckless disregard for the risk to a person’s life. And if a miscarriage does follow (and based on the numbers it almost certainly will), then legally speaking that is manslaughter.

Bottom line - if a “person” begins at conception, trying to conceive becomes effectively illegal.

 

[Fluffy]

if there is a room with one hundered screaming adults in it and there is a fire and in one minute they will die if you don’t unlock the door but, there is another room with a child in it crying for help and in one minute, will be cooked alive. You have to choose one or the other. Which do you choose. Just because you choose the child or the adults does not make the other worthless. Sorry for spelling/grammar mistakes.