Tipsheet

At Last, Agreement -- Of Sorts

For a long time, one might occasionally hear a rabid supporter of abortion termed an advocate of "baby killing."

At last, it seems there is a perfect illustration of the phenomenon -- medical "ethicists" linked to Oxford University in England are now arguing that parents should have the right to kill their newborn babies because they are "morally irrelevant" and because itis no different from abortion.

Setting aside the shocking repugnance of this view (at least to those raised in the Judeo/Christian/Western tradition), it does point out one element that pro-lifers and the most radical "pro-choicers" share: The idea that the moral status of the fetus is essentially identical to that of a newborn baby.

It also illustrates the slippery slope that pro-lifers have long warned about -- how, eventually, if abortion is "normalized," it moves significantly the ultimate understanding about what is a morally acceptable position on the taking of a human life.