With deftness and skill lacking in so many passionate but ill-informed arguments, Klusendorf demonstrates the value of the unborn. He raises important issues and, to his credit, honestly engages with opposing viewpoints. In the end, he wisely trims down the entire matter to the nature of the unborn. Anyone who is curious about the abortion debate or wants to learn how to interact with the controversy in helpful ways should consider this a highly valuable resource.

The unborn are the same kind of being as you and I and thus have the same basic rights we do. True, they differ from us in terms of size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency, but these differences are not morally relevant to their status as human beings. Thus, depriving them of life requires the same strict justification needed for killing a ten-year-old or any other human being. [29]

Pro-life advocates contend that no human being, regardless of size, level of development, environment, degree of dependency, race, gender, or place of residence, should be excluded from the human family. In other words, our view of humanity is inclusive, indeed wide-open to all, especially those who are small, vulnerable, and defenseless. [66]

The claim that religion poisons everything only makes sense if “everything” has intrinsic purposes. Where do these intrinsic purposes come from?...Religion can’t poison anything unless there’s a way things ought to be. [124]

If it is up to us to decide (rather than discover) right and wrong, there is no real difference between Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler. They just had different preferences. Mother Teresa liked to help people. Hitler liked to kill them. Who are we to judge? But we can’t help judging, and that’s the point. [164]

Pro-lifers aren’t imposing their views with intimidation (except for the very few who resort to violence); they’re proposing them in hopes that the American electorate, at some level, will vote them into law. That’s called democracy. [165]

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