The use of analogy in pro-life argumentation
The use of analogy in pro-life argumentation

Summary/Abstract: The paper is concerned with how analogy is strategically used in pro-life argumentation on abortion. Pragma-dialectics (van Eemeren and Grootendorst 1992) offers a set of critical questions by means of which I will evaluate the use of the argumentation based on a relation of analogy in terms of dialectical soundness. Examining various pro-life texts, I have noticed that the analogies employed remain unexplained. Therefore, despite the apparent similarities between abortion and the German holocaust or slavery, for instance, there are essential differences which are not mentioned. I claim that these analogies mainly have a rhetorical function, to operate what has been called by Micheli (2007: 960) “a transfer of emotional consensus”.

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