Cheap Seats Online 2015 Part B
Tissue Paper - 08/05/15
By Rich Trzupek:
In general, I believe far too many people today are far too sensitive about word choice. A host of individuals and organizations spend enormous amounts of times squeezing the last possible drop of meaning – implied or imagined – out of the nouns, adjectives and verbs that people they disagree with choose to employ. For the most part, I find such exercises silly. But, every rule has an exception and I have found mine.
The word is: “tissue”.
I use tissue to blow my nose and wipe my rear. In medical terms, the word is often used to describe portions of similar cellular structures. “So-and-so underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissue from her spleen”, for example.
In any of its uses, tissue is a cold word, divorced from human emotion and empathy. Anyone who chooses to use the word when discussing a living thing necessarily devalues the life in question. There is, for example, a huge difference between calling a new born dog a “collection of newly formed canine tissue” and calling it “a puppy”. The former is cold and clinical, the latter is warm and touching.
Accordingly, it’s no surprise that Planned Parenthood and its supporters insist on calling the organs and limbs of murdered, unborn babies “fetal tissue”. Selling “fetal tissue” sounds so very much more civilized than selling tiny hearts, lungs, legs and arms.
Don’t let them get away with it.
If somebody uses “fetal tissue” in conversation, correct them. If you see journalists or politicians using the term, correct them. Be polite. Be civil. But, be firm. The miracle of a tiny heart should not be degraded and demeaned by lumping it in with a term we use to refer to a wart that had been surgically removed. A tiny heart is not “tissue”, it’s a part of a person.
Oh I understand why abortion supporters are so enamored of the word. It’s much easier on the conscience to market “fetal tissue” than it is to sell the hearts, livers, brains and limbs of unborn babies. “Fetal tissue” sounds civilized. Naming the actual body parts is so boorish.
Tough.
The law of the land that we live in says that a woman has the right to take the life of a child she’s carrying. As a God-fearing individual, I find the fact that someone would avail themselves of that “right” as appalling as any other care-giver using their position of power to take a life entrusted to them. As an American, I believe it is my duty to submit to the rule of law in this (and every) case, but I have no obligation to like it.
Planned Parenthood and its supporters are tying themselves up into knots trying to defend the indefensible. They’ve tried to tie the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) to disturbed individuals who have bombed abortion clinics, the typical sort of histrionic reaction designed to deflect attention from the real issue.
Planned Parenthood and its supporters claim that the videos CMP has released have been “heavily edited” and “taken out of context”. But, one can view the entirety of each video thus far released at CMP’s website. Moreover, there is no context in the world that can make trafficking in tiny organs and body parts palatable. None.
Look, I understand that it’s normal human reaction to respond passionately when an issue tugs at our heartstrings. We all do it. My faith, on the other hand, tells me that I should try to understand and empathize with those with whom I disagree. I’m trying real, real hard to do so in this case. I just don’t understand how people can be OK with this.
These body parts – these pieces of unborn babies – are sold to medical research institutions and those institutions say that they are using those body parts to advance medical science. Perhaps that is so. It does not matter. Any scientific advance that requires organs and limbs of unborn babies as a research tool is not worth discovering.
It’s not “tissue”, it’s a person. If we’re going to have a discussion, let’s start there.
E-mail:
rich@examinerpublications.com
www.threedonia.com