If it's counterproductive, why use it?
I personally believe it's counterproductive. I'm not defending its use. That being said, my only point here was that it's ridiculous to complain about the grisly images used in protest while not caring about the grisly images that take place during the procedure.
An open heart surgery isn't very nice to look at either, but I don't support banning that.
There is no comparison. One image is that of a procedure that is meant to save a life. It "isn't very nice to look at" only if you consider to human body instrinsicly unpleasing to the eye. The human body is more than the skin that coats it; it is a collection of organs, glands, membranes, and other materials that together function to make this fragile thing we call life operate. In saying that its interior is disgusting to look at is a denial of the very reality of what it is.
A picture of an aborted fetus is not a picture of life, but rather one of pure desolation. It is the hollow core of what once could have been, but now will never be realized. It is emotionally engaging because it strikes us at the very heart of
what it means to be human. Of our many traits, one of the most powerful is that of empathy. We can look upon the situation of another and feel what it is to be in their place. For all intents and purposes, death is the end of the line. There is no
after, at least in the context of our lives. Once this event horizon has been passed, it can never be undone. There is no going back. Where once there was vibrance, where once there was hope, where once there was potential, we are left with only emptiness, enduring forever. A life lost is a life lost.
Not only is it the void of death that empassions these images, it is the senseless cruelty that marks them. They are not pictures of intact, almost sleeping infants. They are torn and broken. They are in pieces. They are mutilated, sometimes beyond recognition.
How are we not to react to this? How are we not to feel, to empathize with the image? How could this be a bad thing? If we are to deny the emotional reality of the devastation, than we have lost all that it is to be human. If we are ruled only be cold rationality, then why not give in now? There is no point in a life without emotion. It is a life that could hardly be considered worth living at all.
You can not compare the momentary cutting open of the skin for the purpose of saving life to the permanent damage of a life that will never get a chance to be.
