Respect Life Course Assignment #1

This is an assignment for the students enrolled in my "Philosophical Foundations for Respect Life" course being hosted in Phoenix. However, any readers who want to do this assignment for fun are more than welcome.

Assignment: Debate Review
Due Date: November 10th
Submission Guidelines: Email as a MS Word doc to thorn@diocesephoenix.org
Objective: Write a 750 - 1000 word review of ONE of the following abortion debates linked below. In your review summarize the arguments made by each side and then review the performance of each debater in terms of the strength of their argument and the persuasiveness of their appeal (voice, tone, rapport, clarity, organization, confidence, civility, etc.). Finally, explain how you would or would not have argued the pro-life position differently than how it was argued in the debate.

Here are the debates you can choose from:

Beginning

Scott Klusendorf vs. Nadine Strossen

Alan Shlemon vs. Cecili Chadwick 


Intermediate

Peter Kreeft vs. David Boonin

Patrick Lee vs. David Boonin


Advanced

Don Marquis vs. Michael Tooley

Leave a comment if you have any questions about the assignment or feel free to email me at thorn@diocesephoenix.org.

Where do they get these ideas?

On October 8^th Ann Rose’s article “Fertilized Eggs Are NOT People!” appeared on the pro-choice blog RH Reality Check. Rose claims the unborn at fertilization are not persons and tries to argue by means of a reduction ad absurdum that fetal personhood would lead to unacceptable consequences.  She uses the upcoming vote in Mississippi to define the unborn as persons as her springboard. Here are my responses to her. She writes (in red):

Here are some examples that come to mind of the possible impacts this amendment would have.  Add your own insane scenarios in the comments section: