That is one of my favorites to use. Alongside, if he meets the person who saved the 5000 embryos and left the screaming child to burn to death, how would he feel about that "hero"?
I expect (I have no empirical evidence) that our biology and our innate drive to survive would not even permit our brains to register that choice in that situation. A baby screaming... a burning building... instinct would cause us to pick up the baby and run away and would not process anything more.
Idk.. it might be like that philosophy hypothetical question.. 'Would you turn the train to run over one person or let it keep going, and run over 5 people?' I still have no idea what I'd do..
It's different because your example is action vs inaction. A better comparison would be a burning building with two rooms, one with five children, one with one, which room would you save?
I'm pro-abortion and against Moore, but this is such a silly argument. What exactly is your point with it? To someone who is against abortion, those 5000 embryos are children. The only reason they might pick the child is because the child is older and has some life experience worth saving, but that doesn't prove much.
The point is that often they will say that the embryos are children but still choose the 1 child because they know that they're not the same really...
It's pushing on the contradiction.
It's not a conclusive argument, but a 1:5000 ratio says something big about their beliefs, they can no longer honestly say that they are equally important.
Okay, how about 5000 kittens or 1 child. There are plenty of people who would choose the 1 child. Now let's go out killing kittens.
Your argument is so reductive it is just sad. How about trying to understand the other side's view point instead of trying to find some "gotcha" fake scenario where you think you are disproving their views.
I suspect what you're missing is that some will honestly choose the embryos because they honestly consider them to each be almost equal to the baby. It's not a gotcha, it's a step towards moral clarity - truly knowing their beliefs
I'm pro-choice and I agree with you. Using it as a 'gotcha' isn't starting a constructive conversation, and I feel that is how this would probably usually be used. I could conceive of it being used to illustrate that there are degrees of 'personhood' most people ascribe to early state fetuses and babies though... maybe. Still probably not going to change anyone's mind.
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u/thephoenixx Dec 13 '17
Legit request. Ask your brother, if he was in a burning room that had 5000 embryos in a jar, or one actual child, which one would he choose.