Hitchens: Humanism and abortion.

I have a bear with me a relatively long question here after admitting that an unborn child is a human being you write on page 221 and I thankfully you you say in the book that it's nonsense that an unborn child is not a human being you admit that the unborn child is you say this and I quote there may be circumstances in which it is not desirable to carry a fetus to full term you then go on to Advocate termination of pregnancy if birth control fails here's my question why is it that according to you when God plays God by taking a life prematurely in the Old Testament for example it is a moral outrage but when you play God by taking a life prematurely through abortion it is a moral right well it's a false distinction I mean I don't that's not what I say I mean I say that the the great abortifacient is I would say nature I don't say God of course God does not decide so many pregnanes are not carried to full term uh nature knows uh in the case of our species as with every other mammal and primate uh that some uh fetuses are not going to make it and flushes them up that's just a brute fact um we wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case because we are as you know adapted biologically to an to an environment we've abandoned the Savannah that's why we have appendices that is designed for grass eaters and you know all of this it's all very well knowable you can't be having a brood of sickly uh half-baked children and get away from the Predators I mean so nature is the great aborti I certainly don't blame God for it I do as a humanist believe that the concept unborn child is a real one and I think the concept is is um underlined by all the recent findings of embryology by the early viability of a well conceived a human baby the one that isn't going to be critically deformed or even some uh that are uh will be able to survive outside the womb earlier and earlier and earlier and I see that date only being pushed pushed back and I feel a responsibility to consider the occupant of the of the womb as a candidate member of society uh in the future and thus to say that it cannot be only the responsibility of the woman uh to decide upon it that it's a social question and an ethical and immoral one and I say this as someone who has no Supernatural belief so your question ought to have been this how do I have any ethical opinions since I don't believe that I'm created and I don't believe I'm going to heaven I prefer the first question if you don't right but okay but I mean it just isn't it entailed by it I've have I well I appeal to the audience have I not answered the question about the termination of pregnancy which bit have I not answered you better prompt me then I'll read it again why is it that according to you when God plays God by taking a life prematurely it isn't according to me God I don't say God does that you in your book um which is right over here you have an entire chapter about the atrocities in the Old Testament yes and the atrocities have to do with God commanding genocide and and those things um and and and you obviously have a problem with that as many people should um so my question again is why according to you when God plays God by taking a life prematurely in the Old Testament is it a moral outrage but when you play God by taking a life prematurely through an abortion it is a moral right but once again I'm I'm sorry if my work is so obscure but I don't say that I have a moral right to terminated pregnancy I've given all the reasons that I think hedge that question ethically and morally very sternly stringently um and in any case it's not like saying that every living child of the amalekites should be destroyed and an and a an injunction by God to Moses to say he's been too merciful he spared too many children and enslaved too few women uh and didn't make the genocide complete I I'm sorry I've I've never been accused of and I expect not to be uh if I'm lucky enough my life of any such thing and the the idea there's a moral equivalence between the two or handling the the really difficult question of uh of um an unviable fetus and what should be done about it um isn't a moral equivalence at all so do you want to say that all unborn life is like you say in the book is a human being and therefore you should not kill it is that what you want to say to get out of this dilemma or what do you want to say no but I think no but I think the presumption I've I've long said that the presumption is that the the the The Unborn entity has a right on its side and that every effort should be made to see if it can be preserved and I think that's I think that's an ethical imperative I what I do say in the book I think the Roman Catholic Church makes this argument uh immoral when it could be uh a moral one by saying that contraception is not to be allowed by saying that contraception is the moral equivalent of abortion in other words to say that contraception is also murder which is a nonsensical and disproportionate position I quote some serious Catholics in my book William F Buckley the late is one Clair Booth loes another by saying if the church says that contraception and abortion are morally the same it degrades the opposition to AB um and by making absurd arguments as it has in the past aquinus believe that every single sperm contained a micro embryo inside it and thus that if you like I hope I don't offend anyone hand jobs are genocide um as for don't start um uh the that an ectopic pregnancy in other words a direct threat to the life of the mother a fallopian tube pregnancy is instead of a direct threat to the life of the mother and an obvious no starter for a human embryo because that's going anyway is is uh someone who should be allowed to vote this is nonsense it's casuistry it's immoral it's Superstition it prevents people from thinking seriously about matters that humanism can decide for itself For Heaven's Sake without any Supernatural intervention the question your question sir

Channel: Melvin Olontha

Views: 836,310

Keywords: Christopher, Hitchens, Turek, god, VCU, debate, atheism, Humanism, abortion, theism, wishful, thinking, Christianity, Dawkins

Id: B8HhTKzmvas

Length: 6min 25sec (385 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 22 2008