{"id":4338,"date":"2022-10-06T20:39:17","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T19:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=4338"},"modified":"2022-10-06T20:39:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T19:39:17","slug":"teaching-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2022\/10\/06\/teaching-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ezio Di Nucci<\/p>\n

Many thanks to Helen Watt for engaging<\/a> with my piece on teaching abortion anno <\/em>2022<\/a>. We might disagree on the ethics and politics of abortion itself, but we clearly agree on (the ethics and politics of) teaching<\/em> it. As she says, \u2018universities should extend, not curtail, students\u2019 exposure to other views\u2019 (and in fact I am happy to report that we did end up including abortion in all components of our ethics course at the medical school: lectures, seminars and even the exam).<\/p>\n

Here I just want to clarify my view, since the original piece was written before SCOTUS\u2019s decision: the overturning of Roe makes it more, rather than less, urgent that we engage with abortion (and women\u2019s reproductive and sexual rights more in general \u2013 the patriarchy, basically) in the classroom. Additionally, SCOTUS has made it more urgent that we analyze abortion arguments in the classroom \u2013 particularly those against it (Marquis, say<\/a>).<\/p>\n

As the original comment argued, the whole problem with SCOTUS (and philosophy, actually \u2013 and in fact the Democrats too) is that we underestimated<\/em> abortion, that we thought it was done<\/em>. That same way of thinking about other big progressive idea(l)s (equality, basically) is \u2013 in very simple terms \u2013 why Trump won. But \u2013 and philosophers should know this better than most \u2013 big philosophical questions are never done. So we can forgive the democrats, maybe \u2013 but certainly not philosophers.<\/p>\n

Now you might object that any argument that throws philosophers and the Democrats in the same sentence is not only invalid but outright incomprehensible. But the thin red line is easy to spot: if we don\u2019t expose our students to other views (in Watt\u2019s words), they will continue to underestimate<\/em> other views, which will allow those views back in. What needs exposing, then, is not just students, but also bad arguments; that will be our safety mechanism against the next Trump.<\/p>\n

This clearly isn\u2019t as important as inflation when it comes to political outcomes; well, actually, this Marxist hypothesis will be tested in less than a month at the midterms, which is basically SCOTUS vs inflation or, for philosophers, Frankfurt school vs actual<\/em> Marxism (and if you want my own personal prediction, Marxism will win in NV+GA+PA<\/a> and the Senate gone); but it\u2019s the one small contribution that pawns like us can try to make in the classroom \u2013 and it sure don\u2019t help if colleagues are fired for being too demanding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Summing up: abortion is never wrong, but forgodssake teach it \u2013 and teach especially arguments against it. I say to my students that a classroom is not a democracy, but democracy can sure die in the classroom if we shy away from engaging the other side.<\/p>\n

Author: Ezio Di Nucci<\/p>\n

Affiliation: University of Copenhagen<\/p>\n

Competing interests: None<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ezio Di Nucci Many thanks to Helen Watt for engaging with my piece on teaching abortion anno 2022. We might disagree on the ethics and politics of abortion itself, but we clearly agree on (the ethics and politics of) teaching it. As she says, \u2018universities should extend, not curtail, students\u2019 exposure to other views\u2019 […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8059],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion"],"yoast_head":"\nTeaching abortion - 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\/2022\/10\/06\/teaching-abortion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teaching abortion - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Ezio Di Nucci Many thanks to Helen Watt for engaging with my piece on teaching abortion anno 2022. 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