Calm and rational ways to argue for life

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A question asked on the blog Saturday was, "how do I argue for and try to convince someone who isn't pro-life of the sanctity of life?" This is an excellent question and one that I want to explore.

The preamble to a dialogue with someone on topics such as abortion, euthanasia or embryonic stem cell research is just that: it must be a dialogue and not an argument. As soon as it turns into "I'm right and you are wrong" the other person is simply turned off and shuts you out. You've lost them because they feel you simply want to preach to them in a condescending way.

For today, lets explore arguments against abortion. A good starting point is to ask when life begins. You will get many varying answers, including the following:

• 4 weeks (when the baby is planted in the uterine wall)
• 6 weeks (when the baby's heart begins to beat)
• 12 weeks (when the heartbeat can be heard)
• 20 weeks (first in-depth ultrasound)
• all the way up to some who will say that it is not life until birth from the mother's womb

The question to ask in response to this is that a baby's development varies from pregnancy to pregnancy, so how to you determine at what moment the fetus is transformed to actually being life?

All of the above mentioned arbitrary factors can vary greatly as to when they occur and can even be difficult to identify. A baby being recognized as life from the moment of conception, however, is a specific moment that doesn't vary from woman to woman - the moment of fertilization is that moment - and it doesn't rely on arbitrary calendar dates or pre-fixed stages of development that may or may not hold true for that particular pregnancy.

Another angle to approach in your dialogue is that most people are not absolutely 100% positive that an embryo is NOT life. Once you have gotten them to acknowledge this, you might ask them this question: If you are not 100% sure that an embryo isn't life, would you not want to error on the side of caution? IF you feel that this person is someone with which you can be more aggressive, you might use this analogy as well: If you had a gun in your hand and you weren't 100% sure that it had no bullets, would you aim the gun at your friend and pull the trigger anyway? As I said, the analogy is NOT something you will want to use on everyone, but it can be a very convincing bit of logic.

Lastly, realize that it is very unlikely that you are going to change their mind right then and there. Your primary goal is to leave them with some valid points to ponder and to assure them that if they have any questions or if they want to discuss this more to please contact you. Conversion takes time and is not an overnight process, whether you are bringing someone into the Catholic faith or emphasizing the sanctity of all life. We will explore arguments for other pro-life issues in upcoming blogs. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 13:29 | link | comments |
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