Legal vs. ethical

The video released by the Center for Medical Progress featuring Planned Parenthood’s senior medical services director Deborah Nucatola casually explaining the harvesting of fetal organs is deeply disturbing on so many levels that it’s difficult to sort them all out.

And we are counseled by editorials and news commentators that we need to be more concerned about “language” than about the cold hard facts (“Watch the Language: An Abortion Rights Executive Rekindles the Debate,” July 18 editorial). We are reminded that what Planned Parenthood is doing is “legal.” Oh, how we love to hide behind that word!

Slavery was “legal.” Segregation was “legal.” In the eyes of Hitler’s Germany, even the Holocaust was “legal.” But here’s the question: Does legality necessarily equal ethical? Does it equal morally good or even acceptable? Sadly, our society has gone from right versus wrong, to the end justifying the means. So what if we take the lives of babies, many of whom are quite capable of thriving outside the womb? As long as we use their organs for research (and God only knows what else). You quoted Dr. Nucatola in your editorial as saying: “Everybody just sees this as a way to add another layer of good on top of what they (Planned Parenthood) are doing. They already feel good that what they are doing is good.”

Well, at least they feel good. Isn’t it great that they all feel so good? KATHY RAIMONDI

Castle Shannon