Feb 24 2009
Abortion debate at University of Ottawa this Friday
Ottawa Students for Life, the University of Ottawa’s pro-life club, invites you to attend a debate on the morality of abortion taking place on Friday February 27th at 7:30 p.m. in room 026 of the Arts Building (70 Laurier Ave. East). Stephanie Gray, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform and renowned pro-life speaker will be defending the pro-life position, while Dr. Andrew Sneddon, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa, will defend the pro-choice position. Refreshments will be provided. Attendance is free. No RVSP is required. For more information contact
ottawastudentsforlife@gmail.com
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Very interesting that a woman is arguing prolife and a man the proabortion position. This should hopefully cause a bit of extra reflection for the students in attendance.
I hope Dr. Sneddon is well prepared, because Stephanie is a veritable opponent. She is thoroughly logical, extremely well-spoken and rational. Plus she has the great quality of doing what she does because she believes in it 150%. This is no game for this woman; her life is committed to “making abortion unthinkable.”
Nice! Wish I could attend. Unfortunately, I’m from California. As always, I hope this debate opens up some hearts and minds and that there is a good turn-out.
Cool. I think I can be there. I’ve wanted to hear Ms. Gray debate for some time, but haven’t yet had the opportunity. I agree with Elizabeth, above, that the turnaround in the sexes will make this doubly interesting.
I want to be the guy who gets up in the Q&A and asks Dr. Sneddon why his opinion counts, since men can’t get pregnant.
(Well, not really, but since that canard has come out at every debate I’ve attended previously, it’s gratifying to see that particular pro-choice cannon spiked . . .)
You should ask that Scott! I am being only slightly sarcastic, but it would be interesting to see what he says. I am still at a total loss as to how anyone can look at an ultrasound picture and support abortion.
Scott, please do ask that. I’ll take it as my cue to stand up and shout: “Hey hey! Ho Ho! Pro-Choice Men have got to go!!” followed up by “Not my body, Not my choice.” I will not leave until I have very firmly established that I am absolutely and totally loco.
Hopefully there won’t be any shouting of protest at the talk like here at St. Mary’s University ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZsNXVqu_M ).
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any word on how this went?
It was amazing! Standing room only, and everyone was very enthusiastic but there were no problems at all. I’m not sure who won the debate though; actually I think Dr Sneddon’s arguments were a bit more watertight (unfortunately).
I attended the debate. I thought Stephanie Gray did brilliantly: clear, articulate, logical, passionate, and convincing, always bringing the argument back to the logic of the humanity of the fetus and the fact that it is being killed through abortion, and our duty to protect our most vulnerable and those without a voice.
Dr. Sneddon did not really contest the “fetus as human” or reality of the killing, but relied heavily on an analogy of a mother whose son needs her kidney to survive, and that she has the right to deny her son her kidney as her rights to her body part trumps his. I thought Stephanie skewered that argument. Dr. Sneddon was well-spoken also, but his “inhuman” philosophical points left me cold.
All in all, the debate was a great success; my guess is over 250 people over-flowing the hall, everything was done in a respectful way, and the biggest cheer of the night was to Ottawa U for allowing free speech on their campus. Congratulations to the organizers.
Obviously nobody here really cares about what a ‘debate’ actually is. I like that most people that have posted agree that there’s some ‘hidden meaning’ behind the sexes of the people in this debate. And then begrudgingly it is mentioned that maybe the arguments against pro-life were better.
So it was a setup from the beginning, and you still lost? awesome. Maybe that will make you think twice — or wait, i guess only pro-choice people and 17 year olds trying to have an abortion need to re-think their world views as you harass them outside medical clinics? Because *they* don’t have the whole story, because they don’t see how wrong and illogical their choices are — even though you can’t win a simple, stacked debate.
You lose. And for anyone claiming that a protest outside of an abortion clinic isn’t harassment – why have it outside the clinic? Picket-lines are meant to harass a company, animal rights protestors openly harass companies and individuals that wear fur – but the religious pro-life cults standing between people and the clinic are just there to help? If you want to help, abort yourself.