The Ciderhouse Rules: A Discussion On Abortion
This story is an attempt to soften the stance that abortion is better if it is legal. This journey follows three main destinations along its path. The first will be the protagonist’s relationship with the doctor. The second will be the protagonist’s relationship with the girl. The final will be the protagonist’s relationship with his crew boss and work crew as he attempts to leave the world of abortion behind. While these sequences overlap in the plot of the movie, they are separate and distinct relationships for the necessity of analyzing their meanings. Throughout these plot lines, we constantly see a struggle between consequentialist and deontological arguments; What is the right choice versus …show more content…
Wilbur Larch loved Homer as a father loves his son. As the director of the orphanage, he was heartbroken for Wilbur, having seen him returned and rescued him from abuse. It was easy for Wilbur to attach himself to Homer. As he grew, Wilbur, as many fathers do with their sons, taught him his trade. He trained Homer in the science of performing abortions and delivering babies. Homer was to be the Doctor’s legacy in the world. However, as Homer matured, he started to feel distain for abortions. This led to some minor conflict between the two. In addition, Homer ignored and enabled Wilbur’s addiction to ether. In the movie, he justifies it to one of the children that Wilbur has insomnia and uses it to help him …show more content…
Larch can be seen committing more than just a questionable ethical operation in terms of performing abortions. Dr. Larch was clearly a drug addict. Ultimately his addiction to huffing ether led to the man’s death. Without much argument, it would be reasonable to assume that no medical board would have allowed any doctor to practice medicine while suffering from drug addiction. There is also the question of Dr. Larch’s forging of credentials. By this point, an individual that is that desperate to have others manipulated to fit into his own desires clearly has lost all objective view and would not be suitable for medical practice. Furthermore, training a person without any education to perform surgical procedures itself is also highly suspect. Dr. Larch, rather than invest his future in Homer another way, trains him to perform a medical procedure that can, an as we saw in the movie, lead to the death of the patient very