Ted Merrill

About the author: Ted Merrill practices emergency medicine in Portland, Oregon, and is a board-certified family practitioner.

Extreme views about the morality of abortion—whether these views are pro-life or pro-choice—fail to represent the complexity of the issue and do not hold up under close examination. For example, a group of pro-choice students found that after studying live chick embryos, their feelings about abortion were no longer entirely clear-cut. The question of abortion requires society to make subtle and difficult judgments about right and wrong.

Strange as it may seem, I routinely murmur "excuse me" before I swat a fly. I can't butcher a chicken without apologizing first. I have grieved for the cat that died beneath the wheels of my car.

Yes, I hold all life...