The horrific nature of the undercover Planned Parenthood videos has overwhelmed me. You can view videos one, two, three, and four (along with the full, unedited footage) here. No, I shouldn’t say you can. You should. You must. This is what we’re currently allowing, and it must be seen. The abortion industry has been hiding behind a curtain of euphemisms for so long that even you, pro-lifer, have become somewhat accustomed to its existence. Let these videos shake you back into reality.
As with other social movements to correct injustices in the past (e.g., slavery and civil rights), images can reveal truth, playing a key role in helping us understand with our minds things that would otherwise only be a vague idea to us. As the ancient Roman poet Horace said, “Less vividly is the mind stirred by what finds entrance through the ears than by what is brought before the trusty eyes.” This, I think, will be the most important result of these videos, regardless of what comes of the legal accusations against Planned Parenthood.
You can read about 10 Quick, Important Developments on the Planned Parenthood Scandal and learn a little about the legality and ethics involved in supplying fetal body parts to research facilities here.
What’s Morally Different about These Organ Donations?
Leaving aside the morality of abortion itself for a moment, why should anyone object to Planned Parenthood supplying organs to research facilities? What makes the donation of these organs morally different from a mother's donation of her baby’s organs after the child’s tragic death? The difference can be found in the doctor’s words explaining what makes the giving of these human organs possible:
We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that [researchers want these], so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m going to basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.
The organs are requested by the research facilities while the healthy organ “donor” is still living, and then the wanted organs are obtained by carefully crushing the organ owner to death. This changes the moral picture.
The Legal Step That Needs to Be Taken
The heart of the moral problem with Planned Parenthood’s organ donations (again, leaving aside the morality of the abortion on its own) needs to be legally addressed: No individual or organization should be legally allowed to donate organs if they’re responsible for the death of the organs' owner. Period.
If there’s a beneficial transaction to be had from the death of a human being, then you can’t be allowed to participate in that transaction if you’re the one bringing about that human being’s death. (This applies whether you’re personally directly benefitting or the person you’re donating to is directly benefitting; for in the second case, the one who directly benefits is likely to return the favor with indirect benefits to encourage more donations—i.e., more killing to facilitate more giving.) To allow such a thing incentivizes killing and will inevitably lead to abuses.
If we’re going to talk about legal steps that need to be taken, this seems like it should be one of the first.
When Abortion Doctors Drop Their Euphemisms
As the doctor in the fourth video picks through the baby parts, she says, “It’s a baby,” and announces, “Another boy!” Planned Parenthood workers may tell women to their faces that it’s up to them whether the “clump of cells” inside them is a baby, but this is how the doctors talk behind their backs. They speak the plain truth. They speak of human organs. They speak of genders. They speak of babies.
My prayer is that these videos will break the spell of the abortion industry’s insidious euphemisms.
Amy,
"The liberty of human beings to create and make choices in a free market isn't a "power" behind anything."
This is not all that capitalism entails. There is a much more sinister side to capitalism. It crushes charity and abandons morality as demonstrated in the PP example. I think that you are under the impression that there is a dichotomy of socioeconomic systems without any other options. This is a false dichotomy. Totalitarianism is not the only option other than capitalism for a Christian. That is why the first century church opted for a third option, an economic system within an economic system to undermine the one offered by the Roman empire. Yes...in Acts we can see glimpses of a charitocracy and it was not repressive, nor was socialism. Craig said it himself because his intuition was well informed...aspects of a charitocracy that resemble socialism work well in a family and we are indeed talking about the family of God when we speak of the Christian church. Christians have another alternative that they have for some odd reason surrendered.
"The power behind abortion is human sin and a disregard for human life."
You are right as far as you go on this. But in addition, it is the capitalist drive to make a profit that aids and abets and offers excuses to sear the conscience of those who have done this horrible thing in PP. Capitalism is a team player in this enterprise, not its adversary. I don't deny that what you say is true, but there is more to this story than meets the eye. There are dark spiritual forces working behind this and capitalism is the ready made tool these forces are using.
"And in this case, a huge power behind Planned Parenthood, is, in fact, the government with its massive amount of funding. "
Yes...it is all driven by a government seeking to encourage through its funding the incentive natural to capitalism. It is adding fuel to the fire, driving the PP organization in the direction of disregarding morality in favor of capitalistic gain. There are some kinds of liberties that only lead to further enslavement to sin and the liberty to make choices in a free market economy is just the tool to do exactly that...when that free market economy is within the context of a godless capitalism.
"Again, the power is sin and false worldviews."
Absolutely...and capitalism aids and abets in that false worldview, just like communism does. Marx was right about one thing...capitalism is just the first step toward full blown communism. This is the same animal it just depends on which end of it you are looking at.
Posted by: SteveK | August 07, 2015 at 07:22 PM
SteveK, it's really late, so I'm just going to highly recommend the book Money, Greed, and God to you.
Posted by: Amy | August 07, 2015 at 11:18 PM
I'll ask Ron and Phillip one more time:
What should an SS sergeant do with the dead body of a Jew?
Posted by: KWM | August 08, 2015 at 04:40 PM