1. In your search for the greater good, weigh one thing against another. Since the modern mind tends to think in terms of cost-benefit analysis, money makes a reliable source of analogy. Thus:
Cost of giving birth? 5,000-10,000 dollars for a vaginal delivery. Add 2,000 for a c-section. This does not include the costs of prenatal care. Born premature or with health problems: from a few thousand to more than 200,000. Cost of an abortion? Less than 500 dollars.
See? And you needed only one complete sentence.2. Employ a tried and true rhetorical tactic to at once disarm and comfort any sceptics in your audience by describing the procedure's benignity:
I bet you're wondering what happens in an In-Clinic procedure...an aspiration abortion. The first step is really simple and painless. Your health care provider will examine your uterus. You will get medicine for any pain you may have. Next, a speculum will be inserted into your vagina. Your health care provider may inject a numbing medication into or near your cervix. Next, the opening of your cervix may be stretched with dilators, which are thick rods. Or you may have absorbent dilators inserted a day or a few hours before the procedure. After that, you will be given antibiotics to prevent infection. A tube is inserted through the cervix into the uterus. Finally, either a hand-held suction device or a suction machine gently empties your uterus. Sometimes, an instrument called a curette is used to remove any remaining tissue that lines the uterus. People often call the abortion a D&C when a curette is being used. This procedure takes about 5 to 10 minutes.
Or, for "later second trimester abortions..."...you may also need a shot through your abdomen to make sure there is a fetal demise before the procedure begins. Your health care provider will inject a numbing medication into or near your cervix...
Or suppose you wanted to effectively advocate for gay marriage. You'd first need to address the standard objections, wouldn't you?1. Homosexual activity, and hence marriage, are anti-biblical.
The answer to this is that, yeah, homosexual sexual relations are sinful according to the Bible, but other sins are just as bad - idol worship, murder, abominations, and heterosexual adultery, but these are not used to restrict access to marriage.
2. Marriage is for procreation and homosexuals can't do that.
Well then, every woman who goes through menopause needs to melt down her ring and renounce her vows. And people who don't want kids shouldn't be allowed to marry. And if they do marry they can't use contraception because that makes them just like gays and lesbians who can't have kids either.
3. Homosexual unions do not provide an ideal environment for kids.
Well, pedophiles, registered sex offenders, and axe murderers can have them. Marriage is for closeness and companionship, not kids. Besides, 1/3 of abused kids come from two-parent homes.
4. The species will go extinct if gays are allowed to marry.
Hah. Teenagers are popping out babies left and right.
I've just come through approximately 3 weeks of this. I'm in recovery and don't know how long I'll be there.
8 comments:
Best wishes for a full recovery, Bill! I have returned research essays, which were restricted to topics not so emotionally volatile, but even so it is frightening to see how little grasp they have of how to create a persuasive argument or -- and this is worse here -- how pragmatism simply can't be one's only argument, that values must underlie it all. I'm not saying it very well, too early and too many lit papers waiting to be graded, but you know what I mean. Do you get a break during the summer, or at least for a few weeks?
Yeesh. I don't know how you do it.
I actually agree with these though:
And people who don't want kids shouldn't be allowed to marry. And if they do marry they can't use contraception because that makes them just like gays and lesbians who can't have kids either.
Damn straight. Openness to new life is a necessary condition of a valid marriage.
Not wanting kids is obviously a factor that can render a Catholic marriage invalid. Was that ever a factor in civil annullments in American law?
A couple weeks toward the end of summer, Beth.
Openness to new life is a necessary condition of a valid marriage.
Well, yes. But the part about contraception making married men and women *just like* gays and lesbians is flat false.
Kevin, I don't know. If you find out, get back to me.
"Just like" overstates it, to be sure. "More like", though, yes. And more like in an essential way: in the choice to deliberately engage in disordered sexual acts.
"More like" in that both acts are sterile, a disorder which is "essential" *by definition* only to the homosexual act, not the heterosexual.
I'm doing an online course this summer; I just had my first experience with one this semester, which didn't go so well (it was okay but it was an overload course and I just didn't give it the attention I should have). A 14-week lit course online in 8 weeks should prove interesting! At least some of the students I've had in classes on campus before and I think that will make it a little easier, as well as being my only class. But it's over at the end of June, so I'll still have July and the first part of August off. I don't know how you do it with only a couple of weeks before the fall begins . . .
I don't know how you do it with only a couple of weeks before the fall begins
I like pizza and beer and steak on the grill. Lots of it. It has to be paid for.
I don't teach online courses. I will if they *make* me, but I'll never volunteer. But I will be cramming 14 weeks worth of stuff into 6 weeks, twice. I accomplish this by doubling the speed at which I speak. It's like attending an auction.
Post a Comment