Kerby Anderson

Most people who have seen some of the videos of Planned Parenthood are rightfully disturbed by the images of women haggling over prices and explaining how to crush babies in order to get baby parts to sell. That doesn’t seem to bother the medical elite. The editor of the New England Journal of Medicine wrote an editorial this month to criticize the Center for Medical Progress for making the videos. That’s right. Criticize the people who made the videos. Don’t criticize the Planned Parenthood women in the videos.

Wesley J. Smith tries to explain in a recent column why the medical elite has been silent about the videos and why some even try to defend Planned Parenthood. The issue comes down to worldview. Many of these medical elite do not consider an unborn child a “person” thus they have little or no concern about the morality of abortion or fetal harvesting.

Smith argues in his writings that the medical elite’s view of life is “based upon each individual’s cognitive capacities.” In other words, you are not a person unless you are coherent and have self-awareness. Therefore, an embryo or a fetus is not a “person.” Of course, that could also apply to a born infant. And it can also apply to people who have lost their mental capacities, such patients in a coma or patients with Alzheimer’s.

He argues that under this particular view, “nonpersons have no right to life.” Abortion is merely about a woman’s choice, but is not a moral decision about two lives (the mother’s life and the baby’s life). He also points out that this view can be used (and has been used) to justify infanticide.

Once you understand this worldview issue, you can see why so many in the medical community haven’t spoken up about the Planned Parenthood videos. If you don’t believe this is life in the womb, then there is no moral issue to consider.