Not to worry TN1. I'm not offended by you. I'm offended
for you, and here's why...
I remain convinced you are being scammed.
You tell me this question is meant to parallel the abortion question when you say
Now the answer to this scenario says that if you choose a, you are against abortion. if you choose b, you aren't against it.
So why don't they just ask the question, "Is it right or wrong to get an abortion?". I'll tell you why.
The actual abortion question is a complex one. Many different people have many different answers. The way the question you were asked is presented, it's designed to lead you to respond in a particular manner. It wants you to say it would be wrong to kill the famous violinist.
Here's the problem. Abortion isn't about killing a famous violinist. The central question when considering the ethics of abortion is the one of human life. Is the fetus a human life at the time of the abortion?
You can't truthfully consider the ethics of abortion without considering that question. Yet they want you to. Why?
It's because they want you to give a specific response to the question. They want you to say it would be wrong to sever the cord, and kill the famous violinist.
Again I ask why does it have to be a famous violinist? You tell me:
The point of the violinist was to say that how do you not know that you're "unborn" child doesn't become someone famous? like a violinist, the next Martin Luther King,
I disagree. The model isn't designed to present you with the possibility a fetus could become the people you mentioned. It is designed with the specific intent of getting a visceral reaction from you. It doesn't tell you your fetus could become someone important. The model says it is someone important. If it truthfully wanted you to consider the ethical dillemas involved in considering an abortion it would say something like "You are attached to a comatose individual who you are told may die of a debilitating disease, or may survive to enjoy all the possibilities of a human life." They would also say remaining attached might endanger your life.
They don't say that. They remove all the complexity of the question. They say if you cut the cord, you kill an important person. They're not asking you if it's right or wrong. They're telling you it's wrong.
Now... Where did I get the "Religion" idea from? Simple. That's who does stuff like this; sneaking misleading propaganda into a school curriculum designed to endoctrinate pliable minds into their way of thinking. I gave you some examples of how they've done this sort of thing in the past.
It's possible I'm incorrect. It's possible your teacher was looking for questions on ethics he could discuss, and he stumbled on this one. Maybe it was late at night, and he copied and pasted it into his lesson plan off some Holy Roller site he accidentally Googled, without really reading the article.. It's also possible he knows exactly what he's doing, and he drops these little nuggets in from time to time subtly, never enough to attract attention and get himself into trouble, just enough to get a few kids thinking like he does.
Can you ask your teacher where he found this question. I'd love to email it to a few pro-choice organizations, and ask them if they think this type of question should be part a high-school lesson plan.
