Wheel of Infanticide

Via Newsbusters:

"Their choices are up to YOU" is the tagline for the new pseudo-reality show "Bump+." A fictional Web series designed to look like a reality show, "Bump+" follows the stories of three women facing "unintended pregnancies." Their decision as to whether to abort, or bring their babies to term and either put them up for adoption and keep them, rests on the viewers, who weigh in via the "Bump+" Web site. Yes, killing of the unborn has now become interactive entertainment.

Washington Post's Kathleen Parker described the show as "Jerry Springer meets Oprah meets ‘American Idol' meets Dr. Oz meets ... America's conscience." Christopher Riley, the show's co-executive producer it was "inspired" by President Obama's call last year to find "ways to communicate about a workable solution to the problem of unintended pregnancies."

I hate to sound like the crotchety old guy here, but when did we decide that any show you can produce, you should produce? What's next? Would a show about killing the mentally ill sell? Why not a eugenics game along the lines of Civilization, where you eliminate the "defective" members of your kingdom in order to build a race of supermen?

Whatever the intended goal, the effect of a project like this will be to further desensitize the subject. That a show like this could be produced at all is a testament to how desensitized we've become. There is no "bump". Calling a baby a bump is not just a faulty perspective, it's obscene.