Way too reasonable. That’s all I have to say about Andrew Coyne’s column today. Too fair minded. Too thoughtful. Seriously, it’s helpful when someone who isn’t pro-life (which I assume he’s not) weighs in on these things without lighting any hair on fire.
by 
The simple thing about Andrew Coyne is that he reasons. He is logical. He usually is consistent in thinking about an issue. Simple, yet all people do not so do. Coyne himself slips from consistency when he gets to the looking at the pre born/ born discussion. On the other hand there those who are arguing about the; ‘When does life begin?’ issue, who are not reasonable/logical as their position is that we should not be talking about this. They are saying Canada should not even talk about something. This is sad and particularly so as many so minded are ‘leaders’. This is Orwellian
Actually, I think Coyne is in fact opposed to abortion. I was quite sure I had heard him state that very explicitly on one occasion, though I don’t immediately find anything to that effect now when I google for it, so it’s possible I’m misremembering. But on this issue, I don’t think he’s on the other side.
I appreciate Andrew Coyne informing us of what the court actually said because I for one was not aware of how the judgment was worded. If as he states the court referred to the informed judgment of the legislature weighing in on the debate, then the discussion about when human life begins should have happened long ago. Of all the arguments that can be put forward, this one is a scientific one from which all others should stem. The science we now have available to us will not allow us to arbitrarily choose a date that is convenient to our particular belief. We are either ending human life and should justify our right to do so or we are not ending human life and the debate is ended. At that point the legislature would have the responsibility of making an informed judgment based on fact and not rhetoric and emotion. I do not appreciate that they have shirked their responsibility.
Joel: I have tracked with Andrew Coyne for many years now and I’m pretty confident he is not pro-life. I hope he will be one day, since this is the more reasonable position to take, however he has never come out with a position that is anything other than saying this topic should be up for debate. We can assume from this that he is not stridently or viscerally pro-abortion, nothing more.
When this whole interweb thingy first took off, in the mid-to-late ’90’s, I was a Coyne groupie. I followed his site quite religiously, and took part in a lot of his hosted topical debates, mostly political in nature. One phrase of his stuck in my head from back then, where he described himself as ‘cautiously pro-life’.