{"id":4044,"date":"2020-12-17T14:14:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T13:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=4044"},"modified":"2020-12-17T14:19:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T13:19:36","slug":"are-prolifers-hypocritical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2020\/12\/17\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\/","title":{"rendered":"Are prolifers hypocritical?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Bruce P. Blackshaw.<\/p>\n<p>There has been a swathe of academic papers in recent years accusing opponents of abortion (described as \u2018prolife\u2019) of hypocrisy. It\u2019s a popular theme <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2019\/apr\/11\/death-sentence-abortion-hypocrisy-pro-life\">outside academia<\/a> as well. The argument goes along the lines of \u2018if prolifers care so much about fetuses, why don\u2019t they do something about X\u2019, where X might be adopting frozen embryos, preventing miscarriages or adopting unwanted children. It might even be supporting universal healthcare. At a UK conference recently, one author listened to a presentation where the lecturer declared \u2018prolifers don\u2019t give a shit about children once they are born\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Such claims tend to overlook the involvement many individuals and organisations with a strong prolife ethos already have in these sorts of activities. For example, the Catholic Church looks after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/catholic_hospitals_represent_26_percent_of_worlds_health_facilities_reports_pontifical_council\">26 percent of the world\u2019s healthcare facilities<\/a>, and runs many orphanages. According to the Barna Group, U.S. Christians, who are generally prolife, are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barna.com\/research\/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-adoption\">twice as likely to adopt<\/a> as the general population.<\/p>\n<p>The authors have made several responses to these accusations in recent years. Bruce Blackshaw and Daniel Rodger published a paper about miscarriage entitled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/20502877.2019.1602376?journalCode=ynbi20\">The Problem of Spontaneous Abortion: Is the Pro-Life Position Morally Monstrous?<\/a> As has <a href=\"https:\/\/philpapers.org\/rec\/COLMIN\">Nicholas Colgrove<\/a>. Blackshaw and Colgrove have also published a paper entitled <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1111\/bioe.12733?af=R\">Frozen embryos and the obligation to adopt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2020\/12\/10\/medethics-2020-106633\">In this paper<\/a>, we have used a different approach. Instead of defending against specific claims of hypocrisy, we have taken a step back and tried to identify the common characteristics of these arguments. Having identified the pattern of these \u2018inconsistency arguments\u2019, as we call them, we have developed a general defence against them that can be applied to <em>any<\/em> inconsistency argument.<\/p>\n<p>To summarise, we conclude most inconsistency arguments fail\u2014they don\u2019t take account of the full range of beliefs prolifers hold, and how they might act on these beliefs. Even if they <em>do<\/em> succeed, such arguments don\u2019t discredit pro-life <em>arguments<\/em>\u2014they just show prolifers to be hypocrites. We don\u2019t begrudge philosophers producing these arguments, though. They have helped prolifers think through the implications of their beliefs more thoroughly. And if we are being hypocritical in certain ways, we want to know it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Paper title:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/jme.bmj.com\/content\/early\/2020\/12\/10\/medethics-2020-106633\">Prolife hypocrisy: why inconsistency arguments do not matter<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Author<\/strong>: Nicholas Colgrove<sup>1<\/sup>, Bruce P. Blackshaw<sup>2<\/sup>, Daniel Rodger<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p><strong>Affiliations<\/strong>: 1: Wake Forest University 2: University of Birmingham 3: London South Bank University.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests<\/strong>: None<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bruce P. Blackshaw. There has been a swathe of academic papers in recent years accusing opponents of abortion (described as \u2018prolife\u2019) of hypocrisy. It\u2019s a popular theme outside academia as well. The argument goes along the lines of \u2018if prolifers care so much about fetuses, why don\u2019t they do something about X\u2019, where X [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2020\/12\/17\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8059],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Are prolifers hypocritical? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2020\/12\/17\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are prolifers hypocritical? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Bruce P. Blackshaw. There has been a swathe of academic papers in recent years accusing opponents of abortion (described as \u2018prolife\u2019) of hypocrisy. It\u2019s a popular theme outside academia as well. The argument goes along the lines of \u2018if prolifers care so much about fetuses, why don\u2019t they do something about X\u2019, where X [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2020\/12\/17\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-17T13:14:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-17T13:19:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hazem Zohny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hazem Zohny\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/17\\\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/17\\\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hazem Zohny\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e73152f6aa4e164c7d625d77cf4fed35\"},\"headline\":\"Are prolifers hypocritical?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-17T13:14:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-17T13:19:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/17\\\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":399,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Abortion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/17\\\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/17\\\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2020\\\/12\\\/17\\\/are-prolifers-hypocritical\\\/\",\"name\":\"Are prolifers hypocritical? 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