Encouraging Critical Thinking Online

Unit 2

Gauging and Examining

Popular Opinion

Abortion

Abortion - Overview

• Usually refers to the deliberate termination of a pregnancy before the foetus is able to survive independently

• Legal in Great Britain up to the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy, or later for urgent medical reasons

Abortion

• Find and browse websites that address this issue

• Note the range of views you encounter, and the key site(s) for each view

• Note how prevalent each view is

Abortion – Key Views

• Pro-life – abortion is equivalent to murder, and should never or almost never be permitted

• Intermediate – abortion should be permitted in certain circumstances

• Pro-choice – women should always have the right to choose to have an abortion

Abortion – Key Sites

• The BBC Religion and Ethics section on abortion provides an overview of key issues

• A PDF on the BMA website provides a medical perspective and outlines the legal position

Abortion – Key Sites

• Pro-life interest groups:– Society for the Protection of Unborn C

hildren– LIFE

• Pro-choice interest groups:– Pro-Choice Forum– Abortion Rights

Abortion – Key Sites

• Feminist perspectives:

– Pro-choice: Abortion: Still a Feminist Issue

– Pro-life: Women Deserve Better than Abortion (PDF)

Abortion – Key Sites

• GravityTeen’s Quotes from the Pros section includes a highly selective collection of quotations from professionals involved with performing or organising abortions

Abortion – Key Sites

• The Abortion is Murder website uses graphic images of aborted foetuses to make its point (Warning: some people may find these images distressing)

Abortion – Discussion Questions

• Which views are most widespread?– How significant is this?

• Are there any discernable patterns in who holds each view?– Among experts and lay people?– In the UK and elsewhere in the world?– Among religious and secular groups?

Abortion – Discussion Questions

• How representative do you think the views you encountered are of wider society?– What might make people more or less

likely to express their views publicly?– What might make them more or less

likely to do so online?

Abortion – Examining the Sites

• Look at some of the websites again, and consider:– How various views are expressed– What techniques sites use to promote

their views– What you find persuasive – and why

Abortion – Discussion Questions

• What techniques are used to promote each view?– Are arguments given? Do they work?– Is evidence presented? Is it

convincing?– Are appeals to emotion or shock

tactics used? Are these effective?

Abortion – Discussion Questions

• Do any of the sites examined feature:– Evidence of bias or prejudice?– Ad hominem arguments?– Sweeping generalisations about

opponents or opposing views?– Statements you know to be false?

• How does this affect your reaction?

Abortion – Discussion Questions

• What do you personally find persuasive? Why is this?

• Was there anything you found off-putting, or that had the opposite effect from that intended by the author?

• Did anything cause you to question views you’d held previously?

This slideshow is part of

Encouraging Critical Thinking Online,a set of free teaching resources

designed to develop students’ analytic abilities,

using the Web as source material.

For the full set, please visit Intute Training:

http://www.intute.ac.uk/training/