Pro-Life Syllogism

I have leapfrogged this article in its entirety, with a word correction, from Atheism Analyzed by Stan who highlighted it from the original post, the blog, Scientiam Dei:

Here is Francis J. Beckwith's pro-life syllogism:

1. The unborn entity, from the moment of conception, is a full-fledged member of the human community*.
2. It is prima facie morally wrong to [murder] any member of that community.
3. Every successful abortion [murders] an unborn entity, a full-fledged member of the human community.
4. Therefore, every successful abortion is prima facie morally wrong.¹

*Support for Premise 1.


¹ Found in: Scott Klusendorf, The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2009) p. 29. Originally from: Francis J. Beckwith, Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Stan adds, "To deny that every human - every human - went through the prenatal stages of human life including the division of cells and all embryo stages can be seen as nothing short of dishonest. To claim the moral authority to determine which stage of human life they think is acceptable to [murder] is an onerous claim. The idea that Atheism is more empathetic is absurd, unless the value of human life is discounted in advance, and the Atheist is elevated beyond his actual position as just another human, not a moral judge or determiner of life and death for other innocent humans.

No excuse can defeat the fact that human life always starts with cell division and that killing those cells kills a human life at that particular stage. This is not defeated by any appeal to the condition of the mother, the ability of the embryo to feel pain, or any other rationalized permission to [murder] the human at that stage, and only in a triage situation can such decisions be made which would kill the embryo or mother with moral impunity.

The much vaunted Atheist "empathy" has not been extended to the more than 50,000,000 humans [murdered] by abortion in the United States. "

I am sure you will notice that I changed the 'kills' to "murder" as to be more accurate and truthful.

I found it completely telling that Stan was able to articulate the exact arguments I hear daily, on this blog or in my group, from the Atheists. How can a worldview, a position that stands on an argument from incredulity, possibly be so sure?

This post was almost a Déjà vu as a few days ago I asked in the group: Are you absolutely certain that is NOT a person inside of the woman deserving rights and freedoms as any other person? If so, how are you absolutely certain?

UPDATE: this post is on the heals of a new video released just today revealing Planned Parenthood encouraging  Sex-Selective Abortions like China, from Live Action.