Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Eleanor Raoul Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Emory University, presented a lecture titled "Life or Death: Who Decides?" at Hamilton on January 27. The lecture was the first part of a special two-speaker examination of abortion issues and was sponsored by Levitt Center.
"The topic of abortion is as controversial as any topic we will discuss in our time," Fox-Genovese stated as she began her lecture. "It has caused deep division and contention for Americans for the past 30 years."
She discussed the recent election, the great emphasis placed on values, and the recent relationship between American values and personal choice, and how the morality that influences American's decisions regarding abortion is a personal choice as well.
Fox-Genovese then discussed the "bright side" of the abortion debate. The "bright side," she said, is that abortion is a "guarantee of women's rights" describing abortion as seen as a "fundamental right" comparable to the freedom of speech or religion. However, this ideology is difficult to deconstruct; "why is abortion an absolute right?," she asked. According to Fox-Genovese, sympathy grew strongly for abortion because of the growing expectations for women, particularly upscale, middle-class white women.
She concluded that the abortion rights roused "the struggle for equity to unexpected heights," implying that in order for women to be equal to men, a woman needed to be like a man and be free of pregnancy.
The "dark side" of the abortion debate, according to Fox-Genovese, is that we do not truly understand what abortion means. "Abortion is the taking of a human life," she concluded. "The element of choice (for the mother, the father, and the unborn child) are not commensurate." Fox-Genovese then discussed in-depth the economic and social implication of abortions in the United States, as well as the risks of the medical procedure. "We have made children the causality for women's desire for freedom," she said.
Abortions, Fox-Genovese claimed, are causing a lack of human life in the U.S., as women abort children with deficiencies and physical disabilities. She urged that abortions will lead society to a "dark impoverished prison where everyone needs to fit a certain mold." In short, she argued, by embracing abortion, we are embracing a very narrow view of what it means to be human.
An extensive question and answer session followed Fox-Genovese's lecture.
Bryn Mawr and Harvard educated, Dr. Fox-Genovese has taught at several schools and universities. Among her many awards and distinctions are the 2003 National Humanities Medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Cardinal Wright Award from the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
-- by Emily Lemanczyk '05
