Regarding Megan's first post about graphic images, I have heard a number of opponents claim that graphic pictures of aborted fetuses are offensive for the same reason that any "gory" pictures are offensive. Amanda Marcotte makes this clear:
Anti-choicers’ best weapon is exploiting the disgustingness of surgery, any surgery. (If you described root canals like they do early term abortions, and put up doctored photographs of the results, you could get half of American to freak out and agree to be “pro-tooth”, or whatever misleading phrase you want to use.)Its easy to test to see whether this is the case. In fact, if you press the show/hide button, you will see a graphic, bloody image. I don't want to be accused of "doctoring" the image, so I took the picture with a ruler to show the correct size of the object in question. I have available an affidavit from the surgeon who performed the procedure signifying that the images are real and haven't been changed in any way.
Show/Hide
Pretty underwhelming, huh. I really don't have an affidavit, by the way, for I extracted these third molars an hour ago. In fact, the patient wasn't too overwhelmed by the teeth - she elected to take them home with her.
The truth is that there is far more "gore" in an average episode of CSI than the graphic pictures that we show. However, if it is not the gore that makes the picture offensive, then what is it?
I believe the answer is simple. When confronted with graphic images of aborted fetuses, there is something in anyone with a functional conscience that cannot deny what abortion actually is. The public would like to live their lives without confronting the truth that we allow the intentional killing of innocent human beings on a daily basis. They would rather that we simply hide the evidence of what is really happening in a medical waste bag rather than confront the truth. When carefully confronted with images that tell the truth about abortion, it is far more difficult to deny what we can't not know.
I'm about to get my wisdom teeth removed tomorrow, and I'm thinking about you, Serge. :)
ReplyDeleteFor the record, as a soon-to-be oral surgery patient, I'm not freaked out by your gory picture of wisdom teeth. Yup, those are teeth. Yup, there's some blood. Nope, it's still not a problem for me.
Wisdom teeth look like teeth. Aborted fetuses look like human beings. In both cases, the picture is showing the reality of the situation. However, the reality of a wisdom tooth is not a big deal. The reality of dead human beings is a very big deal indeed.
I'll be praying for you Naaman that things go well and that your surgeon is almost as skilled as I am :-).
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that my surgeon was very skilled, but it still hurt. A lot. Free tip: Don't wait until you're 35 years old to have your wisdom teeth removed. :)
ReplyDeleteI actually wanted to see my teeth after they had been pulled. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell the doctor, and he disposed of them before I woke up from the anaesthesia. My fault.
In contrast, I could not imagine wanting to look at the remains of an aborted child. I know that there are some people who want to see their aborted children. The late Dr. Tiller even had a chapel in his "clinic" so that mothers could say goodbye to their aborted children. If you ask me, that's simply horrific. No thank you!
Serge,
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how my pro-life 101 training just kicks in when I need it. :) The issue is not are they gore ridden, they are. The issue is, are they true? They are. My favorite part of Scott's case for showing these images is how he relates it to the use of Emmitt Till's funeral photos. His very brave mother insisted on an open casket funeral for her son who was brutally murdered just for his race. She wanted everyone to see the truth about what racists did to her son. As Scott puts it, "We are 'opening the casket' on abortion". That has always stayed with me. I too, find the pics disturbing, but hiding the truth is more so.
Lori
It was offensive for Jesus to call the Pharisees hypocrites too.
ReplyDelete