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Monday, March 23, 2009

GAK Winner--Jacob Appel on Abortion

I love it when a reader writes in with an update on our most recent GAK! Winner.  Where in the world is Jacob Appel?  Apprently everywhere:

A hero on trial


Re “Abortion doctor’s trial to start,” March 15
The Times' article on the upcoming trial of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller certainly conveyed the animosity that abortion opponents feel toward his work, but I am not sure it captured fully the degree to which abortion-rights supporters, such as myself, hold him in esteem. To many progressive Americans, George Tiller is a genuine hero who ranks alongside Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr. in the pantheon of defenders of human liberty.  Although one need not agree with this assessment of Tiller, the intensity of this brave man's support among his admirers should not be underestimated.

Jacob M. Appel
New York
The author teaches bioethics at New York University.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Above: Only if you consider a mound of cells life.

Only if you can consider the scraping away of unformed tissue matter the same as exterminating millions of fully formed, born Jewish men, women, and children.

I hope we're not going to have to get into it. I'd rather discuss fiction.

Anonymous said...

a mound of cells gets a form rejection from the womb editor.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Writer, Rejected, when he/she started a fun website to talk about literary rejections knew it would become an anonymous hiding place for right-wing nutsos who are only here to vent about dang liberal PC america and the ivory tower elitist arugla forces destroying fiction as well as the world?

Writer, Rejected said...

Did not predict it

NM said...

Did not predict it

You should have.

Writer, Rejected said...

Don't should on me, bro.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if it would improve if you forced everyone to have a blogger name?

They could still be anonymous, but fixed names might help.

Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:33,
I think that's the best way for people to sort through the Anon vs Anon vs Anon comment wars, but I don't it would do much to stem the mean comments. Take NM as a fine example. I think the only thing that will reduce comment nastiness is true comment moderation.

NM said...

Hmm, this blog and its culture of anonymity creates a septic tank of political reaction, and the problem is...me, who showed up a few weeks ago?

The anonycowards got a taste of their own medicine at long last. How dare they complain about the taste at this late date?

Anonymous said...

Would W,R send a form comment rejection?

Anonymous said...

Amazingly, NM, lack of anonymity appears to make you even MORE obnoxious than anyone else here.

Doesn't exactly support your point... but then, your real point is just to get attention, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

I agree with first commenter. There is a difference between a mound of cells and a late-term abortion, just as there is a (slighter) difference between a late-term abortion and the individuals slaughtered in the Holocaust. However, Appel's designation of Tiller as a hero is ill-considered at best, and ethically delusional at worst.

While I respect Appel as a fiction writer, I wonder if he has ever considered that abortion, in its attempt to empower women to own and control their bodies, has resulted in the genocide of a particular gender -- after all, in some parts of Asia, female fetuses are aborted 2 to 1 over male fetuses. Those women never get the chance to be "empowered."

Anonymous said...

I'm a woman and pro-choice, even though I wouldn't get an abortion myself. What I don't understand about you anti-choice/pro-life people is, why do you care what another woman does to her body and to her fetus? It's not your potential kid whose getting aborted, and, in the end, it only means more resources for your own children. I only care about my own fetuses and babies, but not other people's. Am I being cynical?

Or what if your wife was raped and got pregnant? Would your opinion on abortion change then?

But anyway, I disagree with heynonny about WR suppressing certain opinions. Besides, the comment drama drives page views.

NM said...

Amazingly, NM, lack of anonymity appears to make you even MORE obnoxious than anyone else here.

Nope. Not even close to the level of obnoxiousness of some of the anons here. You just can't stand that I've pointed the spotlight on you and your ilk.

Anonymous said...

LROD has officially become indistinguishable from an AOL comment section. Oh, boy.

Anonymous said...

"why do you care what another woman does to her body and to her fetus?"

Why would you care about a genocide in Darfur? Perhaps because you care about the human race, and you care about the slaughter of innocents? Ethics doesn't survive in your hyper-individualistic system. We are a society. We are all human. We should all care.

"It's not your potential kid whose getting aborted, and, in the end, it only means more resources for your own children."

This is so ruthlessly pragmatic it's scary. It's Nietzschean -- only the strong should survive. I don't think you truly believe the implications of this.

"I only care about my own fetuses and babies, but not other people's. Am I being cynical?"

You're not being cynical, you're being selfish. Too much Ayn Rand, perhaps?

Or what if your wife was raped and got pregnant? Would your opinion on abortion change then?

This is an argument from exception. Less than 1/100 of one percent of abortions are in cases of rape. Why don't we talk about the majority of abortions which occur for the convenience of the mother/father?

But yes, I concede that there are pressures and circumstances in life that would make me want to get an abortion. So? That's not really an argument against abortion, that's just an example of my weakness and frailty to stand up for what I believe is ethical.

Anonymous said...

I guess some of the folks here got their wish.