. . . that to some extent the cause of the modern culture of death is, I believe, compassion.A hundred years or so ago, people were accustomed to death; but strangely enough, were not usually brutalized by it. Instead, they recognized it as a natural – if unwelcome – stage in life’s journey.
Advances in medical treatment, which one must ultimately view as occasioned by compassion, have led to the vast majority of people dying in hospital, or in an hospice; which may very well mean that their deaths are less painful, and even less ‘undignified’ – but it has also led to a huge percentage of the population having no acquaintance at all with the actual mechanics of death and dying.
As a result, people don’t take death – as a stage of life – seriously; instead they canonize the incidentals such as peace, quiet, comfort, and ‘dignity’, and forget what it’s all about – failing to recognize, for instance, that it’s vastly better to die in some pain but with enough brain to allow you to make a good confession than to die painlessly but unshriven.
Taking this further, though, it occurs to me that so many of the ‘liberals’ who support ‘a woman’s right to choose’ only do so because they don’t have any idea what they are talking about . . . and that if they did, if they really did, they’d be utterly horrified, and their opinions would probably change very swiftly.
An advert which showed what actually happens in an abortion – what is actually in the container after it’s all over – would undoubtedly be refused by the Advertising Standards Authority : making women who have abortions look at the results of the ‘procedure’ would no doubt be viewed as almost inhuman . . . but what about what they’re doing ? Isn’t murder inhuman ?
Fr John Boyle, over at Caritas in Veritate, had a good post last night, after the Marie Stopes ad was shown, which raised the entirely sensible and valid point that perhaps what is needed is for the pro-Life organizations to create their own advertising campaign.
Of course one problem with the Marie Stopes ad is that it’s utterly misleading; and even if a woman comes to the conclusion that an abortion is the solution to her ‘problem’, you can be quite sure that they’ll never let her find out what it really involves.
The Germans who lived around the Death Camps were made to go and view the tens of thousands of emaciated, maltreated, corpses in them : and then watch them being given decent burial.
Is it, perhaps, time to take practical steps to ensure that all those complacent – but frequently also ignorant – ‘liberals’ understand exactly what the result of ‘a woman’s right to choose’ is ? Should those be the images in our campaign ?
I’m sure they wouldn’t be popular; but at least – unlike Marie Stopes’ – they’d be honest.
Advances in medical treatment, which one must ultimately view as occasioned by compassion, have led to the vast majority of people dying in hospital, or in an hospice; which may very well mean that their deaths are less painful, and even less ‘undignified’ – but it has also led to a huge percentage of the population having no acquaintance at all with the actual mechanics of death and dying.
As a result, people don’t take death – as a stage of life – seriously; instead they canonize the incidentals such as peace, quiet, comfort, and ‘dignity’, and forget what it’s all about – failing to recognize, for instance, that it’s vastly better to die in some pain but with enough brain to allow you to make a good confession than to die painlessly but unshriven.
Taking this further, though, it occurs to me that so many of the ‘liberals’ who support ‘a woman’s right to choose’ only do so because they don’t have any idea what they are talking about . . . and that if they did, if they really did, they’d be utterly horrified, and their opinions would probably change very swiftly.
An advert which showed what actually happens in an abortion – what is actually in the container after it’s all over – would undoubtedly be refused by the Advertising Standards Authority : making women who have abortions look at the results of the ‘procedure’ would no doubt be viewed as almost inhuman . . . but what about what they’re doing ? Isn’t murder inhuman ?
Fr John Boyle, over at Caritas in Veritate, had a good post last night, after the Marie Stopes ad was shown, which raised the entirely sensible and valid point that perhaps what is needed is for the pro-Life organizations to create their own advertising campaign.
Of course one problem with the Marie Stopes ad is that it’s utterly misleading; and even if a woman comes to the conclusion that an abortion is the solution to her ‘problem’, you can be quite sure that they’ll never let her find out what it really involves.
The Germans who lived around the Death Camps were made to go and view the tens of thousands of emaciated, maltreated, corpses in them : and then watch them being given decent burial.
Is it, perhaps, time to take practical steps to ensure that all those complacent – but frequently also ignorant – ‘liberals’ understand exactly what the result of ‘a woman’s right to choose’ is ? Should those be the images in our campaign ?
I’m sure they wouldn’t be popular; but at least – unlike Marie Stopes’ – they’d be honest.
Yes, I thought Fr. Boyle had an excellent idea re: doing prolife ads.
ReplyDeleteI'm of two minds re: the FULL truth in advertising. I think your point is well taken re: what the reality is for people who have abortions. The fetus is killed by saline, or dismembered, etc. I think that by law a person should be required to be shown graphic pictures of what happens to babies when they are aborted.
So they can't say "I didn't know." Likewise they ought to be require to be shown pictures of a developing baby and sign off on things like "I understand that at x weeks my baby is X developed." Make the person say those things out loud! Abortion liberals have a huge disconnect. SCIENCE tells us that an embryo is uniquely different from any other human being from the moment of conception. Whereas screaming "my body" types will prattle on re: "keep your rosary off my ovaries." Lady, it's NOT "your body." "Your body" doesn't have two heads, 4 kidneys, 4 legs, 4 arms, etc.
For an ad campaign to get through to the general public, you'd have to try the softer approach i.e. the live developing child.
And apart from that there needs to be a hard hitting documentary re: Marie Stopes, and her evil counterpart Margaret Sanger. They DID show Hitler a thing or two. Enough of the PC whitewash in history books as to who these two were.