A Controversial Topic

It's always annoyed me when people automatically equate pro-life with backwards religious fundamentalists. I mean, I hate deep Southians as much as the next liberally-raised Obama-backing teenager, but I still see some merit in the pro-life side of the abortion debate.

(Yes, this is the most controversial topic I've tackled here by far, but I'm going to try and get past that by just plunging straight in and hoping no one notices.

Oh wait.)

Yet when I've tried to explain my views to those pro-choicers who I've talked with, they don't seem to get my views, at least seventy percent, I believe, because they assume it's based on faith.

Well I've recently figured out a way to explain what I think. I have to warn you though, this is a pretty deep hypothetical.

So imagine you time-traveled to March 25, 1908 in Vienna by accident (you were actually trying to get to 2908 so you could read up on the stock market in 2010 and make a shitload of money, but you twisted the dial the wrong way. Silly you.)

While you wait for your handy-dandy time machine to recharge, a painter approaches you with some paintings he wants to sell. You don't have any of this time's money on you (in fact, you can't even remember what it is) so you just end up chatting with the struggling artist. He tells you about how his mother recently died of breast cancer and how he's trying to get into art school. You tell him some stuff you make up on the spot about a father who died in a war. As you talk, a rabbi walks by, and the artist spits at the holy man's feet. Shocked, you launch into an impassioned speech about the equality of man.

Halfway through, you realize that the artist has signed his paintings A. Hitler. You also notice that he has a Hitler mustache. You then realize you are lecturing Hitler on racism.

You also realize that you have a Glock. 45 tucked in the back of your waistband for those pesky space monkeys in the future.

Do you shoot poor sad artist Hitler?

(For the purposes of this exercise, we're going to ignore paradox. Killing Hitler will not cause a cataclysm of events that will cause you not to have a time machine and thus not kill Hitler.)

There are a couple things you need to consider about this situation. We know Hitler caused the deaths of millions and millions of people. If he hadn't lived, it's likely that there are few with the charisma and political savvy to unite the Germans in a nationalistic fervor as he did, although it's possible things would happen anyways. Yet even if killing Hitler makes the Holocaust slightly less likely, killing him seems like a good idea.

Yet there's a good possibility that merely your presence in this time will stop Hitler from the Holocaust. Your lecture had some very good points in it. Maybe Hitler becomes a priest. Maybe he finds a conscience and just expels all Jews from Germany instead of mercilessly slaughtering them as subhuman beings. Maybe as a political leader, he instead makes an appeal to the League of Nations to create worldwide standards of living and causes the League of Nations to actually become a potent force for good in the world. You have no way of knowing.

Yet we know for sure that there is a possibility that Hitler will go and kill all the Jews. This seems the most likely possibility, just from induction. (that is, he did it last time, so he'll probably do it this time.)

Thus, it seems logical that we should kill him. I think most people would agree here (if you don't think killing Hitler before he causes mass genocide, feel free to comment.)

Yet, that seems to demonstrate one lesson: What people can be is a part of what they are now. We think of artist-Hitler as a person who will become Mass-Murderer-Hitler. It's an intrinsic part of who he is, in this case an even bigger part of who he is than what he is now. In this case, who he will be is more important to his identity than who he is now. When we end what he is now, we end what he will be as a part of that.

Can you not use the same logic for abortion? Part of what an embryo or a fetus is currently is what it will be in the future. And, even if life is just a very good chance, as miscarriage is always a possibility, that life that it will have is a part of what it is now. Even if it is not alive yet, it has the potential to be. And by ending the potential life, well, you end a potential life. (Just in case I wasn't clear, Killing Hitler in this case would be an allegory for not having an abortion. Just making sure that was clear.)

It that doesn't make any sense to you, well, it does to me. Now, I should say that I'm not a rabid pro-lifer. I don't believe that abortion should never happen. There are cases where abortion is the best and only choice. Pregnancies from rape, pregnancies that endanger the mother's life or impede her life enough that her quality of life is drastically lowered.

Yet there are other options for other cases. Adoption is a huge one. There are hundreds of people in the world who wants kids and can't have them.

Anyways, I'm not telling you what you should think. That's the realm of holy men and politicians. I'm just trying to explain why I feel the way I feel in a way that makes sense. You can take it or leave it.