Taking his cue from philosopher John Rawls, columnist Eric Zorn tosses onto the conversational battlefield his “Platinum Rule,” suggesting that we “Do unto others as though you might be them” (Metro, Sept. 14).
I’ll pick up that gauntlet. Let’s assume that Zorn has a Rawlsian experience and wakes up tomorrow as an unborn baby. How does the Platinum Rule jibe with his pro-abortion views? As a helpless child, would Zorn care to subordinate his right to life to the convenience of the woman who happened to be bearing him, and how does the power that the woman holds over him comport with his Rawlsian sense of fairness?
Although Zorn says his rule is a “mental discipline” designed to encourage us all “to walk a bunch of miles in a lot of different shoes,” one cannot help but note that his remarks raise the question of precisely how much walking has he done in the shoes of one whose existence totally depends on the arbitrary will of another.
