On October 25, Catholic apologist and author Trent Horn spoke to the Boston College community about abortion. He was greeted by a crowd of 80 people with mixed opinions on the issue.
He began his speech by welcoming everyone, particularly those who are pro-choice. He lamented the fact that the level of dialogue on this issue has degraded and that “the best arguments are not presented on this issue.” He went on to express his desire to find the truth at the bottom of this issue, wherever that may lead.
Horn stated that the central question determining the entire issue of abortion was “What is the unborn?” He defended this thesis by saying that if the unborn is a person, then he must be defended, while on the other hand, “if the unborn is not a person, abortion needs no justification.”
Going on to defend his position, he argued that there are three objections that a pro-choice person could make to pro life arguements. Someone could either assume the unborn are not persons, argue that they are not persons, or concede that they are not persons. His subsequent arguments primarily focused on addressing the latter two.
For those arguments that assume the personhood of the unborn, he advised using the “trot out a toddler” line of reasoning. This method has three steps: agree with the person’s concern, apply the same example to a toddler, and ask why the same reasoning does not apply to both. The example he used was of a woman who was considering abortion because she did not think she could support another child. Horn’s response was to ask why this same logic could not be applied to a two or four year old child in the same way.
He then transitioned his focus to those who argue that the unborn are not persons. His initial argument was two-fold: that “scientifically there is no debate” whether a new human life begins at conception, and that when people try to distinguish unique human lives from persons, “every time… we’ve been wrong.” He pointed out that African Americans under slavery and Jews under the Holocaust were also dehumanized with this same logic.
Building upon his argument for the humanity of the unborn, he attempted to show why different ways to deny the humanity of the unborn failed logically. His overarching point here was that to say a human being is not a person, there needs to be a coherent way to define personhood. According to Horn, there are four types of characteristics that are employed to deny the humanity of the unborn. These are represented with the acronym “SLED” (Size, Level of development, Environment, and Dependency).
Each of these, he argued, either give personhood to non-persons, or take personhood away from persons. For example, he argued that dependency on the mother is not a viable negation of personhood because most people would consider infants to be persons even though they are completely dependent on adults to keep them alive. Also, he contended that personhood depending on level of development is “arbitrary and exclusive,” since there are animals that have higher mental faculties than infants but only the infants are persons.
In addition to dismantling other definitions of personhood, he proposed his own definition. Building upon the Medieval philosopher Boethius, he defined a person as “an individual member of a rational kind.” He argued that this definition is able to account for all members of the human species without excluding any on arbitrary grounds.
In the question and answer portion, in response to one questioner who asked why abortion has become prevalent in our society, Horn responded that “We are more prone to tolerate injustice when it happens to anonymous humans.”
James Pritchett is a Sophomore studying History and Classics with a deep affinity for his native land, the Golden State. Despite being the most recent lover of Catholicism on the Torch staff, he is the C101 editor and his main interests consist of reading Dostoyevsky, playing devil’s advocate, and correcting people on niche theological heresies.
- The Pope, Fatima, and World Youth Day - February 26, 2024
- Fr. José Guibert on St. Francis Xavier - November 29, 2023
- Where is Faith When I Doubt? - October 30, 2023