Essay: Were the PP videos unethically produced?

We think the "debate" about whether this undercover operation was ethical is ridiculous, but it is being made. Here is a piece from Crisis Magazine, the online publication, rebutting the suggestion that "lying" to attain the information was wrong. 

The author, Monica Migliorino Miller, has excellent academic and pro-life credentials -

Monica Migliorino Miller is the Director of Citizens for a Pro-life Society and Associate Professor of Theology at Madonna University in Michigan. She holds a degree in Theatre Arts from Southern Illinois University and graduate degrees in Theology from Loyola University and Marquette University. She is the author of several books including The Theology of the Passion of the Christ (Alba House) and, most recently, The Authority of Women in the Catholic Church (Emmaus Road).

Excerpts below the link -

Were Planned Parenthood Videos Produced Unethically?

Daleiden and members of CMP passed themselves off as representatives of a fake biologics company to facilitate their covert action. For this they have been criticized by at least two articulate voices, Professor Robert George and Catholic author Mark Shea. They accuse Daleiden and CMP of engaging in the evil of lying and consequentialist ethics.

Their arguments were first made against Lila Rose when four years ago undercover investigators from her group Live Action, conducted similar pro-life covert activities. At the time, I published an exhaustive critique refuting the claims of Live Action’s critics. I will review some of those arguments here and offer a new perspective as to why Daleiden did not lie.

The George and Shea analysis, while thoughtful, suffers from a literalist understanding of language and communication and fails to make a sufficient distinction between lying as a direct offense against truth and acts of deception that can be morally justified. Critics of CMP are more than hesitant to condemn covert police or wartime operations which require false identities. If critics of CMP cannot come to a moral conclusion about these types of deceptive acts they have very little ground by which to condemn Daleiden.

After quoting extensively from the Catechism of the Catholic Church -

Let us apply the above elements to false identity. Assuming the person acts for a good end, what is a person actually doing to achieve that end? By false identity one intends an act of self-defense and only secondarily an act of deception. The person in effect cloaks himself, thus defends himself against those who have no right to know who he is. The false identify does not directly offend against the good of truth because the primary object of the action is to hide oneself—the indirect effect being the deception of those with whom the person comes into contact.

One may argue that the person wills that others be deceived and thus is guilty of a lie. ... Keep in mind that, if someone has the right to don a disguise to ward off danger to himself or others, yes deception results, but according to CCC, Art. 2489: “No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have a right to know it.”

>>>>>>>>>>

Let’s consider this case. May a Jew in Nazi Germany named Mr. Rubin disguise himself as a German gentile, call himself in fact Mr. Schmidt to escape detection by the Gestapo and get himself out of the country? To get past Nazi check points, he may indeed “pass himself off” as someone else. Should the Nazi guard ask him: “Are you Mr. Schmidt?” Mr. Rubin may answer: “Yes, I am Schmidt.” What the victim of injustice is really communicating, according to mental reservation is “I am Schmidt insofar as this is my defense against your unjust intention of killing me.” The Nazi guard has no right to know the man’s Jewish identity and he is only “led” into error concerning some literal fact.

Certainly CMP acted for a good end—to expose the unjust and possibly illegal activity of Planned Parenthood to facilitate an end to abortion. When Daleiden takes on a false identity—pretends to be someone other than who is he—the primary object of his act is to protect himself from those who kill the unborn, for the end result of gathering information that will lead to the freeing of the unborn from legalized abortion. Are the PP workers deceived by his pretense? Yes. But this is not Daleiden’s direct object. The direct object of his action is to protect himself against evil-doers for the sake of helping others.

A fine and cogent defense of pro-life investigative journalism.

 

Comments

[Dr. Elizabeth Rex]

This is also an excellent piece of investigative journalism! Thank you!

[Eileen Peterson]

If this undercover operation had been about the destruction and selling of animals, CMP would be heroes in every media outlet in America.