The Culture of Death In All Its Ugliness

Kirsten Powers, writing at USAToday, asks why the mainstream media is giving so little attention to the trial of Kermit Gosnell, an abortion doctor on trial for murder in Philadelphia. The story is horrific, just the kind of thing that normally catches the attention of CNN. But, the story also raises some troubling questions for the culture of death such as, why is it wrong to kill a child that has just emerged from the womb, but two seconds prior, killing the child is a constitutionally protected right? In the interest of fairness, our culture draws arbitrary lines all the time: We all know some sixteen year olds who are smart, precocious, and well-informed, but they can't vote until they are eighteen, and we all know some not smart, not precocious, no well-informed twenty year olds who can vote because they have passed the arbitrary dividing line. But, an arbitrary line along the birth canal raises more difficult problems than choosing the voting age.

When this story first broke, Melinda Henneberger wrote the definitive article on it which you can read by clicking here. And Will Saletan wrote a great piece at the same time asking the kind of questions our culture prefers not to face. (h/t to Charlie Camosy for providing the links.)

There is horror in our midst.  Are we to do nothing about it? Can't the press at least find time to report on it?