Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, sells the body parts of late-term babies they aborted for medical research. A videos of a sting operation showing senior Planned Parenthood executives discussing such sales, including abortionists buying Lamborghinis with the proceeds, have been posted to YouTube. Predictably, Pro-Lifers are outraged and the mainstream media have either been ignoring the story or focused their outrage on the violation of Planned Parenthood's privacy.
But all of these reactions seem entirely misplaced to this observer, based on the following points:
First, that murder of a human being is wrong seems to be as self-evident a moral proposition as can be stated. Its prevention is the single best argument for the exercise of the coercive powers of the state.
Second, that the status as human being depends on location—inside or outside the womb—rather than intrinsic qualities is as absurd a proposition as is to be found in current U.S. law (not an easy category to stand out in).
Third, that the status of human being worthy of protection obtains before full gestation is a more arguable proposition. But, speaking personally, any doubts I had on the issue were dispelled when my beautiful son and daughter held my finger in their hands, looked me in the eyes, and smiled at me for the first time after only 24 weeks of gestation.
Fourth, that medical research and Lamborghinis are not bads. They are great goods, public and private, respectively. They are certainly much better than discarding dismembered babies into trash bins.
Fifth, that it is entirely reasonable to find that these bads vastly outweigh the goods. It is not reasonable to find that these goods aggravate the bads; they clearly fall, however lightly, on the other side of the scale.
So whatever one's prior views of late-term abortion is, it seems clear that the exposed Planned Parenthood practice either makes as wonderful thing even better or, at the very least, an evil thing ever so slightly less bad.This is an example of a more general phenomenon. Consider, the medical experiments performed on concentration camp inmates. Now, most concentration camp doctors were just crackpots whose experiments served no purpose except to satisfy the experimenter’s sadism. But some were perfectly intelligent, if evil, doctors and some of their results were valuable (like excellent anatomical charts) or even life-saving (like the data on survival in extremely cold water). But if one points out this obvious fact, one will immediately stand accused of being an advocate of genocide or, at least, medical experimentation on unwilling subjects, even though one is neither. In a world of rational utilitarians, Planned Parenthood would be advertising these baby part sales and Pro-Lifers would be minimizing their frequency or importance. That we observe the opposite is further proof, as if any was needed, that we do not.
