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In one of the chapters in The House of Atreus, you compare abortion in the U.S. to the Holocaust and the Nazis' other extermination campaigns. Aren't you aware that many of those who belong to groups the Nazis targeted find the comparison offensive? Yes, I know that comparisons between abortion and the Nazis' killing tend to be controversial. Some people may feel that, simply by making the comparison, I am somehow downplaying the horrors that the Nazis perpetrated. To some extent, their concern is legitimate. The Nazis' atrocities are almost universally regarded as the essence of evil. Therefore, groups on many issues--not just abortion--sometimes demonize their opponents by comparing them to Nazis. The result is to trivialize the true nature of the Nazis' crimes. People who have not read The House of Atreus may feel that, by suggesting the comparison, I'm engaging in the same sort of vitriol. However, I doubt that those who have actually read The House of Atreus would make this mistake. I explain that the Nazis' killing differs from abortion in a host of important respects, and I go into great detail explaining the parallels I do draw: the sheer scale of human beings killed, the role "science" and other tools of advanced culture in the destruction process, the tendency to cast the victims as "subhuman," the importance of the notion of "humane" killing, etc. While I appreciate that the comparison may be painful for some--particularly those who are members of groups the Nazis victimized--I would be irresponsible if I did not point them out where they exist. The best way to ensure that those who fell victim to the Nazis did not die in vain is to prevent anything like it from happening again. That does not simply mean that we must prevent Germans from killing Jews or members of the other groups the Nazis victimized. It means that we must defend the life of every human being, particularly the weak or voiceless. As I point out in The House of Atreus, the Nazis' crime was that they killed innocent human beings--millions of them--not simply that they failed to use a "politically correct" method of deciding who would die.
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