Let’s imagine you consider the current exploitation of undocumented workers the be unjust, but you understand that agitating against it probably isn’t going to do much good, since it is generally accepted and many businesses benefit from it, and the rest of us benefit from lower prices.
Then, you learn that the government is going to embark on a project that would continue the exploitation of undocumented workers indefinitely. You feel compelled to vigorously oppose this, since it makes all of us complicit in the exploitation of workers, and further entrenches the existing injustice.
According to Michael Kinsley’s favorite hobbyhorse argument for embryo-destructive research, this would expose you as morally unserious, since you are not out opposing the current exploitation.
Ross Douthat had a nice response, to which Kinsley retorted, including:
My own suspicion is that this fertility-clinic anomaly hasn’t even occurred to most pro-lifers. And I think, or hope, that when they realize that their logic in opposing stem-cell research would condemn all IVF as well, it will give many reasonable pro-lifers pause—maybe even about their pro-life position in general, certainly about their opposition to stem-cell research. That’s why I keep harping on this analogy. And that is why the leaders of the pro-life movement keep avoiding it.
Except it obviously has occurred to the pro-lifer Kinsley was addressing in this particular post, and Douthat specifically addressed the issue. When your point is being addressed by the first regular pro-life New York Times op-ed columnist, I don’t think you can continue to claim that, “the leaders of the pro-life movement keep avoiding” your argument. I’m not sure if appealing to the assumed ignorance of those who share you adversary’s position is classified as logical fallacy, but if not, it should be.
But it’s also amazing that Kinsley really believes this is convincing. As if we haven’t been hit over the head with the argument that these embryos are just going to be thrown away anyway. As if we think they just appeared magically.
What’s going on in fertility clinics is a travesty. But I don’t know how to address it. Even modest efforts to confront this problem are labelled as “evil.” But I do know how to address keeping the government from funding something I find morally repugnant.
UPDATE: One more thought — if there were a pro-life campaign against IVF clinics, do you think Mike Kinsley would be praising the pro-life movement for its moral seriousness and intellectual consistency?Me, neither.
