[WikiEN-l] An expansion of Ed's proposal on "partial-birth abortion"

Wed Oct 29 21:40:22 UTC 2003

Mark (Delirium) wrote:

> The basic tension is between opponents of
> legalized abortion, who want the descriptions 
> to be as gruesome and detailed as possible, 
> and between supporters of legalized abortion, 
> who want the descriptions to be as detached, 
> clinical, and jargon-filled as possible.  
> Hopefully we can avoid doing either.

You hit the nail on the head. The debate over abortion has definitely
been polarized around loaded terminology. 

I bet we Wikipedians will be able to reach a consensus on describing
abortion procedures using medical terminology - even at the cost of
using "detached" jargon.

I have fainter hopes that we'll be able to reach consensus on the
neutrality of any article exploring the moral aspects of abortion.
Extremists from both "pro-life" and "pro-choice" camps may very well
insist that nothing short of fully embracing their POV is "neutral". 

Which is why I've avoided the issue like the plague (to use a clinical
and gruesome metaphor). Not to mention that it will take dozens of hours
of my time...

Uncle Ed