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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

Abortion And Torture

By The Daily Dish
Dec 3 2008, 6:33 AM ET

A reader writes:

You wrote today regarding torture, "I should confess that behind my passion on this subject is a core religious conviction - that all human beings have dignity in the eyes of God and that treating any human being in this way is an absolute moral evil."

What about the abortionist? 



How do you envision the 'plan of salvation' to unfold for an abortionist, who has performed hundreds, or thousands, of terminations, possible late term?

If all are called to be saved, and the moral damage done to the torturer, is as great as that to the tortured, how does the abortionist respond to his calling and remain in business? 

You wrote today that you found Darren Vandeveld refusal to participate in torture as an act of heroism, and "inspiring to see him throw away his career for it." 

Do you not have the same hopes and dreams for the abortionist?

Yes, I do. I could never be an abortionist and admire those in the medical profession who refuse to become one. The difference of course, is that the government is actually torturing; it is not merely permitting torture. And so all of us are far more directly implicated in the government's torture than we are in a constitutional regime in which other private citizens are permitted to abort the unborn children of consenting women. The Dish aired a related debate during the election.

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