An obscene analogy

Students should ignore Diag exhibition

How desperate are the campus anti-choice groups? Evidently, very. Students for Life and the Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship have teamed up to bring tasteless placards to the Diag.

The display, called the "Genocide Awareness Project," juxtaposes images of genocide victims with pictures of aborted fetuses. Students for Life and the Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship sponsored the exhibition, which will be on display on today and Tuesday.

The purpose of the Genocide Awareness Project is to draw an analogy between real historical atrocities like the Holocaust and the recent genocide in Rwanda and legal abortions. Obviously, this is difficult since there is no similarity between the systematic destruction of millions of living human beings and the legalization of a safe procedure that gives women control over their bodies. The timing of the event is especially offensive since it trivializes the Holocaust only days before Rosh Hashanah, one of the most important holidays on the Jewish calender.

Noticeably absent from the display are the equally gruesome images of what happened during the incalculable numbers of unsafe, back alley abortions that occurred in the pre-Roe v. Wade era.

What the exhibition in the Diag actually reveals is a sad state of affairs for the pro-life lobby. Rather than argue against abortion on rational ethical grounds, pro-lifers have instead opted to appeal to people's (manipulated) emotions.

Birth is only one milestone to use in determining when something that is biologically human legally and morally becomes a person. The claim that conception is an equally good milestone ignores all of the attributes of personhood that give us reason to think that humans as a species are special and unique.

A common response to this argument is that it opens the way to legalizing infanticide. After all, there can not be much of a difference between a fetus that is a day from being born and an infant that has been alive for a day. But there is a difference: In the former case, a fetus co-exists with a woman inside of her and consequently requires her to significantly change her lifestyle; this impinges on her right to freedom. This is not the case with a newborn infant - it is an autonomous entity in the sense that it is not physically connected to a person who may not want it; an infant does not need to be killed to preserve anyone's rights.

Regardless, abortion should not be compared to the Holocaust - a historical event that stands on its own and should not be mocked or slighted by comparison. Pro-lifers have a right to show their obscene placards and students need to respect that right - but not the message. Throughout this ordeal, the most important thing to remember is that the Genocide Awareness Project thrives on attention. The best way for students to show their displeasure with the display is to ignore it when walking through the Diag or to avoid walking through the Diag at all.