Friday 4 May 2012

Yo! Margaret! (Somerville)

Margaret Somerville is a pearl-clutching dissembler and distorter. (But you knew that.)

In yet another screed railing against Canada's lawlessness on abortion, first she offers the Baby Seals Gambit, with a bit of a new pretzelly brain twist.
Legal protection does not require giving rights to an unborn child, or recognizing him or her as a person, or even that the child is human. We use the Criminal Code to protect from cruelty kittens and puppies and baby seals, which have none of these attributes. Surely, we have at least similar obligations to unborn children.
Legal protection does ^NOT entail rights? Huh? What does it entail then?

Next, the Fetal Pain BS.
There is an increasing recognition and, at the least, resulting deep concern that past a certain point in gestation abortion is a cause of severe pain for the fetus. There is quality evidence (U.K. research) suggesting the beginnings of pain perception in the fetus at 16 weeks gestation and most researchers agree that is a reality at 20 weeks.
BLAAAAT. Nope.

Real scientists agree that the fetal brain is simply not developed enough until about 28 weeks' gestation.

A more recent and very interesting study suggests that fetuses cannot differentiate between pain and touch until perhaps as late as 35 to 37 weeks. Very shortly before birth, in other words.

Next, the Conflation of 'Human Being' and 'Legal Person' Shuffle.

Then the No Restrictions/Regulations SHRIEEEEK.

(I can't believe I'm going to quote a CON to refute that one.)

Gordon O'Connor giving the government's response to Woodworth's Wank last week.
This does not mean, however, that abortion is unregulated in Canada. Abortion is regulated through provincial governments' responsibility for the delivery of health care services in conjunction with the medical profession. All provincial and territorial colleges of physicians and surgeons have declared that abortion is a medically necessary procedure, and delivery of this medical service is regulated accordingly.
Hey, Margaret, I can keep this up as long as you can. But why can't I get paid to do it?

9 comments:

Ruaidhrí said...

People who call themselves "bio-ethicists" seem for the most part to be addle-brained busyboddies looking for a more respectable-sounding description.
Sommerville, as usual, argues from her conclusions to whatever filigree of half-facts and distortions she thinks will get her there. She might or might not know that it's all fallacious, but we can only hope that her position at the University is used in their classes a convenient counter-example to the clear-headed thinking they're trying to teach.

fern hill said...

Oo. I like 'addle-brained busybodies'.

I don't think I've ever read anything from a 'bio-ethicist' that wasn't complete twaddle.

Niles said...

Just for those that don't know much about her, that would be this Margaret Somerville.

Somerville has a fistful of academic achievements but she's a multi-tasker theocratic rightwinger on a mission from God. Her specialty is gabbling in tongues she hopes sounds enough like Science to impress people who don't have an alphabet after their names.

She admits she argues like this because arguing from religion won't impress people outside the sect, but make no mistake, she is cherry picking data to provide cover for her personally held belief in the dictates of Catholic 'natural law'.

Sixth Estate was pondering back in 2009 whether she's officially a Catholic along the lines of SHE WHO MUST NOT BE WHISPERED but she's certainly the go-to speaker for Catholic organizations, recognized by this distinction in 2010.

And if you think she's moved on from opposing same sex marriage, think again(line 65 submission in pdf form).

fern hill said...

Zow. Niles, you may just have won yourself the Sommerville Beat.

fern hill said...

Oops. Somerville.

Niles said...

*shudder*. Slappy and Sixth Estate were there long before me. She's a broken record, repeating the same crap over and over about how it's all science bitchz! Her pdf submission is a wonder in cognitive dissonance and her appendices in the pdf application to the Australian govt committee are her books. Nothing but her books.

cmk438 said...

Maybe you should do a little more of your own research to discover what abortion really. Visit an abortion clinic. Talk to women who have had abortions. Look at the fetuses....then say they can't feel pain! How can this be?

fern hill said...

My goodness, cmk438 has been on Blogger since May 2012. Did you join just to scold us? Should we be flattered?

Feel free to peruse this blog, cmk438. We have done lots of our own research. We have had abortions, we know women who've had abortions. We've seen the gory photoshops.

Fortunately, we rely on science and facts to come to our rational conclusions. Not pictures and glurge.

But thanks for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

photoshops? how do they photoshop them fern? and one thing I have always wondered about the fetus porn - with no context, how do we know those aborted fetuses in the photos werent 'murdered for fun' but actually had severe problems - hence the need for an abortion!

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