Full disclosure – I did not take this picture, nor do I know who did. I don’t know if it’s new, or if it’s been around for a while. I don’t even know if this is an argument any actual thinking human being is attempting to make, or if this guy is being filmed as an extra on a movie set. Either way, it’s going around fb as an anti-choice statement by people I DO know – AND LIKE – and I felt like responding. 😀
I considered a serious rebuttal to the implied nonsense in this guy’s sign. Then, I decided to treat this mentality like the joke that it is. I created a chart. Charts are logical, right? (Click on it to enlarge…)
I was soooooo tempted to go back and make a better chart – one that really disproved this flippant comparison. You know, how protecting sea turtle eggs had no future consequences for the mothers who lay them; how laying the eggs and leaving to go on with their sea turtle lives could not with any intellectual honesty be compared to the medical and emotional issues that must be weighed when a human female gets pregnant; the financial implications of helping a sea turtle hatch as opposed to forcing a woman to go through a pregnancy, birth a child, give the child up for adoption OR keep the child and raise him or her through adulthood; how a sea turtle mommy is not at risk for the emotional trauma that a human mommy is no matter WHICH decision she makes regarding pregnancy, birth and parenthood – because in my zeal for intellectual honesty, I must NEVER minimize the heartbreak and guilt that goes along with the decision to TERMINATE a pregnancy.
I didn’t, though, because when I set out to write this, I vowed to treat this chart with the same level of complex thought as anyone who would seriously try to make the argument in the sign the guy in this picture is holding.
I love the chart! Good response, Aliza!
Thanks, Barbara! 🙂
Not being flippant, a prime difference must be cited between humans and all other species, plant and animal, when consequences of sex are being considered. For non-humans, sex is the means for procreation, period. Humans, on the other hand, in addition to its universal biological function, have made sex into a language. This language can express many things from the sick violence of rape to the deepest and tenderest expressions of pure love. Therefore, when the intent is emotional expression rather than reproduction, and unintended fertilization occurs, the moral dilemma which ensues cannot be applied to a sea turtle without entering the world of the absurd. It seems that the sign holder, (and Mr. Santorum,) who don’t seem to comprehend the difference, have not yet advanced beyond such absurdity.
I do love your chart, though.
Truth-telling, as always. Thanks, Max. Sex as language. I love it.
Aliza, I must protest! Your analysis does not even MENTION the large percentage of baby sea-turtles that never make it off the beach due to nefarious predators! All because the sea-turtle community has been stripped of the basic marine right of self-defense! I supported legislation to help arm baby seals years ago, and now, governments are so afraid of a baby seal uprising, they’ve banned hunting them completely! The same needs to be done with sea-turtles! Shoot the first seagull or crab that goes for one, and the rest will get the message! Join me!!
Please understand that Chris C. Is a great friend of mine, and as such, he is warped and twisted. Just how I like my friends.
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Reblogged this on The Plumber's Crack and commented:
And she made a chart!!!
How ’bout that??? 😀