‘Potentiality’ is just a diversion

Theodore Utchen, in the Dec. 1 Fence Post argued against a previous writer, Dan Rak, who logically equated abortion to murder, by writing, “My position turns on the concept of potentiality versus actuality. While a fetus is within the womb of a pregnant woman, such a fetus is but a potential human being and not yet an actual independent person alive in this world.”

Mr. Utchen is no doubt familiar with the term from logic, “sufficient condition.” A sufficient condition is one such that its occurrence brings about the consequent. For example, if we had a line of dominoes arranged, 26 to be precise, and labeled, “A — Z,” we could argue the conditional, “If domino, A is tipped forward, then domino, Z will topple. Once domino A is tipped, unless something intervenes in the process domino, Z will fall, therefore, the tipping forward of domino A is a sufficient condition for domino Z to topple.

Although twenty four other dominoes link domino A to domino Z, the toppling of A does not produce the potentiality of domino Z toppling, it is an actuality.

In the same way, conception is a sufficient condition for human life barring nothing aborts the natural unfolding of the process. The process takes longer than dominoes, it involves more intermediate steps, but the process unfolds inexorably forward nevertheless.

We know this to be so, for, if it weren’t women wouldn’t seek abortions unless they believed that their pregnancies would lead to childbirth. Calling what takes place in the womb a “potentiality” is a diversionary contrivance, the purpose of which is no less than to placate our sensibilities to the fact that abortion is about killing babies.

Brian Van Dine

Carol Stream