Dignity (Law & Order episode)
Encyclopedia
"Dignity" is the fifth episode in the twentieth season of the television series Law & Order
. The episode revolves around the issue of abortion
. The story was inspired by the killing
of late term abortion
provider George Tiller
.
and Cyrus Lupo
investigate the crime. During the investigation, a nurse at Benning's abortion clinic
admits to providing illegal abortions. Bernard and Lupo debate the abortion issue. Bernard responds to Lupo's defense of abortion in cases of rape by saying, "You got it backwards, man! The horrible thing is the rape! Not the bringing of a life into the world." Bernard says that he is pro-life because he was born two months premature after his mother tried to force a miscarriage
by throwing herself down a flight of stairs; had she been successful, Bernard would not have existed. Their investigation leads them to a pregnant woman, Blair Morton, who was scheduled to have an abortion with Benning a few days later because the child would have been born with Ehlers–Danlos syndrome; her boyfriend was listed as having called the abortion clinic where Benning worked six times the previous week. However, the boyfriend denies calling the clinic. Instead, it was Blair's father, Kevin Morton, who had hoped to convince the doctor not to perform the abortion on his daughter. Eventually the killer, Wayne Grogan, is found and arrested. A pro-life attorney, Roger Jenkins, takes on his case. At the initial hearing, Jenkins says Grogan was acting in defense of a specific person, the baby of Blair Morton and the grandson of Kevin Morton. Kevin Morton had told Grogan that he was trying to convince the doctor not to perform the abortion. The judge approves the defense's request for the right to proceed with a justification defense
and a trial by jury
is set. After the hearing, the attorneys for the prosecution, Michael Cutter
and Connie Rubirosa
, argue about the abortion issue; Cutter is pro-life and Rubirosa is pro-choice
.
Rubirosa goes to find a nurse who abruptly quit her job at Benning's clinic. The nurse reveals that Benning had killed a baby born alive after a botched abortion. Rubirosa tells Jack McCoy
and Cutter, saying they are obligated to hand over the evidence to the defense as Brady material
, but both McCoy and Cutter say it can wait until after the trial.
At the trial, Kevin Morton testifies that he encountered Grogan a few days before the murder, and Grogan told him his grandson would be okay. Next, another late-term abortion provider is called to the witness stand, where he says not even the law will stop him and his colleagues from performing abortions. Jenkins summons a witness, a woman, Lisa Barnett, who was pressured to have an abortion because the child would have been terminally ill, but decided against it. The prosecution tries to stop the defense from proceeding but Jenkins says Grogan had seen the woman on a talk show before the crime and it influenced his state of mind. Barnett gives her compelling story of delivering her baby, who spent most of her 21-hour-long life "peacefully in my arms" and died "naturally...with dignity". Most members of the jury are moved to tears.
McCoy realizes that there is extremism on both sides after the testimony of the other late-term abortion provider. At this point Cutter tries to convince McCoy to accept a plea bargain
for voluntary manslaughter
, saying Roe v. Wade
, the United States Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in the U.S., conformed to human knowledge of life and science at the time it was decided in 1973 but did not anymore and needed "another look", saying "cats and dogs have more rights than the unborn". Cutter also compares Grogan to a modern-day John Brown
. McCoy still refuses. Rubirosa reveals that she did hand over the evidence of Benning's murder of a newborn baby to the defense, saying she could not violate her personal ethics. She tells Cutter that she had once regarded Roe v. Wade as "gospel" but after hearing Barnett's story, she asked herself, "Where does my privacy end and another being's dignity end?"
The next day the defense calls the nurse, Jennice Morrow, who told Rubirosa about the killing of the newborn baby. Morrow details how Benning asked the patient if he should complete the abortion even though the baby was born alive, and the patient responded, "Yes, finish it." Morrow says Benning inserted scissors into the base of the baby's skull to kill it.
On the third day Jenkins shows the jury a picture of Morton's newborn grandson, saying the baby would be dead if not for Grogan. Cutter begins to show the jury Benning's wallet, containing pictures of his family that are stained with blood from his death, but says there has been too much "heartbreaking testimony". Instead, he tells the jury that the issue of abortion goes to the core of the human person, saying humans are united in the belief that every life is special and has dignity, which is why the violence of Grogan's act should be condemned. The jury finds Grogan guilty of first degree murder.
After the trial, Rubirosa requests to be transferred to another division. The episode ends as McCoy says he once thought people should be consistent; he expected that "pro-lifers would oppose capital punishment
" and human rights
activists "would claim some [rights] for the unborn." He concludes that it's a "messy world" and tells Rubirosa and Cutter to "figure it out."
, which had condemned the murder of George Tiller but appreciated the episode's handling of the abortion issue as a whole. Jill Stanek
wrote that she expected "the plot would not go well for pro-lifers. The most I expected was milliseconds of fairness with pro-abortion clichés ruling the hour." Instead, she wrote, "My, was I surprised. I could have written that script. The episode wasn't even balanced. It was outright pro-life, not that I mind." She asked, "In a town bent on stirring controversy, does Hollywood now think the pro-life view is in, hot - the new gay?" Dave Andrusko of the National Right to Life Committee
wrote, "What makes the Law & Order episode so riveting is that virtually every pro-life argument you knew you would never hear on a network program is a part of 'Dignity'...More important, it occurred to me as I listened in utter astonishment that each of these observations could have been presented in a way that was artificial, forced, or (as so often is the case with network portraits of pro-lifers) something that you would expect from an idiot. None of that was the case. These were real flesh-and-blood people, not caricatures."
However, the episode was condemned by many pro-choicers
. Sarah Seltzer of RH Reality Check said it was an "abortion disaster" and "wasteland of TV." Kate Harding of Salon.com
said NBC
was spreading "anti-choice propaganda".
Law & Order
Law & Order is an American police procedural and legal drama television series, created by Dick Wolf and part of the Law & Order franchise. It aired on NBC, and in syndication on various cable networks. Law & Order premiered on September 13, 1990, and completed its 20th and final season on May 24,...
. The episode revolves around the issue of abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
. The story was inspired by the killing
Assassination of George Tiller
On May 31, 2009, George Tiller, a physician from Wichita, Kansas who was nationally known for being one of the few doctors in the United States to perform late-term abortions, was shot and killed by Scott Roeder, an anti-abortion activist. Tiller was killed during a Sunday morning service at his...
of late term abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
provider George Tiller
George Tiller
George Richard Tiller, MD was an American physician from Wichita, Kansas. He was the medical director of a clinic in Wichita, Women's Health Care Services, one of only three nationwide which provided abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy .Pro-life group Operation Rescue kept a daily vigil...
.
Synopsis
Dr. Walter Benning, a late term abortion provider, is shot and killed while in church. He had been shot the previous year by an anti-abortion radical, and Dr. Benning's wife suspects another one has returned to "finish the job". Detectives Kevin BernardKevin Bernard
Kevin Bernard is a fictional character on the TV crime drama Law & Order, portrayed by Anthony Anderson.- Character overview :Detective Bernard first appears in the episode "Burn Card" as an Internal Affairs detective, investigating a shooting in which Detective Ed Green is involved...
and Cyrus Lupo
Cyrus Lupo
Det. Cyrus "Lupes" Lupo is a fictional character on the long-running NBC series Law & Order, played by Jeremy Sisto. He replaced Nina Cassady, who was written out of the show due to Milena Govich's departure from the cast.-Character development:...
investigate the crime. During the investigation, a nurse at Benning's abortion clinic
Abortion clinic
An abortion clinic is a medical facility that primarily performs or specializes in abortions. Such clinics may be public medical centers or private medical practices.-Canada:*There were 197 abortion providers in Canada in 2001....
admits to providing illegal abortions. Bernard and Lupo debate the abortion issue. Bernard responds to Lupo's defense of abortion in cases of rape by saying, "You got it backwards, man! The horrible thing is the rape! Not the bringing of a life into the world." Bernard says that he is pro-life because he was born two months premature after his mother tried to force a miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
by throwing herself down a flight of stairs; had she been successful, Bernard would not have existed. Their investigation leads them to a pregnant woman, Blair Morton, who was scheduled to have an abortion with Benning a few days later because the child would have been born with Ehlers–Danlos syndrome; her boyfriend was listed as having called the abortion clinic where Benning worked six times the previous week. However, the boyfriend denies calling the clinic. Instead, it was Blair's father, Kevin Morton, who had hoped to convince the doctor not to perform the abortion on his daughter. Eventually the killer, Wayne Grogan, is found and arrested. A pro-life attorney, Roger Jenkins, takes on his case. At the initial hearing, Jenkins says Grogan was acting in defense of a specific person, the baby of Blair Morton and the grandson of Kevin Morton. Kevin Morton had told Grogan that he was trying to convince the doctor not to perform the abortion. The judge approves the defense's request for the right to proceed with a justification defense
Justification (jurisprudence)
Justification in jurisprudence is an exception to the prohibition of committing certain offenses. Justification can be a defense in a prosecution for a criminal offense. When an act is justified, a person is not criminally liable even though his act would otherwise constitute an offense. For...
and a trial by jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
is set. After the hearing, the attorneys for the prosecution, Michael Cutter
Michael Cutter
Michael "Mike" Cutter is a fictional character on the long-running NBC series Law & Order and its spinoff Law & Order: Special Victims Unit played by Linus Roache. The character debuted in L&O's eighteenth season premiere, broadcast January 2, 2008, and remained through its series finale on May...
and Connie Rubirosa
Connie Rubirosa
Assistant District Attorney / Deputy District Attorney Consuela "Connie" Rubirosa is a fictional character, portrayed by Alana de la Garza, who joined the cast of long-running NBC drama series Law & Order during the 17th season premiere episode "Fame". She is the only second-chair ADA of Law &...
, argue about the abortion issue; Cutter is pro-life and Rubirosa is pro-choice
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
.
Rubirosa goes to find a nurse who abruptly quit her job at Benning's clinic. The nurse reveals that Benning had killed a baby born alive after a botched abortion. Rubirosa tells Jack McCoy
Jack McCoy
John James "Jack" McCoy is a fictional character in the television drama Law & Order, created by Michael S. Chernuchin and played by Sam Waterston since 1994. He is the second-longest tenured character on the show, after Lt. Anita Van Buren . On January 28, 2009, McCoy's character ended the longest...
and Cutter, saying they are obligated to hand over the evidence to the defense as Brady material
Brady material
Brady material consists of exculpatory or impeaching information and evidence that is material to the guilt or innocence or to the punishment of a defendant. The term comes from the U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland, in which the Supreme Court ruled that suppression by the prosecution of...
, but both McCoy and Cutter say it can wait until after the trial.
At the trial, Kevin Morton testifies that he encountered Grogan a few days before the murder, and Grogan told him his grandson would be okay. Next, another late-term abortion provider is called to the witness stand, where he says not even the law will stop him and his colleagues from performing abortions. Jenkins summons a witness, a woman, Lisa Barnett, who was pressured to have an abortion because the child would have been terminally ill, but decided against it. The prosecution tries to stop the defense from proceeding but Jenkins says Grogan had seen the woman on a talk show before the crime and it influenced his state of mind. Barnett gives her compelling story of delivering her baby, who spent most of her 21-hour-long life "peacefully in my arms" and died "naturally...with dignity". Most members of the jury are moved to tears.
McCoy realizes that there is extremism on both sides after the testimony of the other late-term abortion provider. At this point Cutter tries to convince McCoy to accept a plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
for voluntary manslaughter
Voluntary Manslaughter
Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being in which the offender had no prior intent to kill and acted during "the heat of passion," under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed. In the Uniform Crime Reports prepared by the...
, saying Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
, the United States Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in the U.S., conformed to human knowledge of life and science at the time it was decided in 1973 but did not anymore and needed "another look", saying "cats and dogs have more rights than the unborn". Cutter also compares Grogan to a modern-day John Brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the...
. McCoy still refuses. Rubirosa reveals that she did hand over the evidence of Benning's murder of a newborn baby to the defense, saying she could not violate her personal ethics. She tells Cutter that she had once regarded Roe v. Wade as "gospel" but after hearing Barnett's story, she asked herself, "Where does my privacy end and another being's dignity end?"
The next day the defense calls the nurse, Jennice Morrow, who told Rubirosa about the killing of the newborn baby. Morrow details how Benning asked the patient if he should complete the abortion even though the baby was born alive, and the patient responded, "Yes, finish it." Morrow says Benning inserted scissors into the base of the baby's skull to kill it.
On the third day Jenkins shows the jury a picture of Morton's newborn grandson, saying the baby would be dead if not for Grogan. Cutter begins to show the jury Benning's wallet, containing pictures of his family that are stained with blood from his death, but says there has been too much "heartbreaking testimony". Instead, he tells the jury that the issue of abortion goes to the core of the human person, saying humans are united in the belief that every life is special and has dignity, which is why the violence of Grogan's act should be condemned. The jury finds Grogan guilty of first degree murder.
After the trial, Rubirosa requests to be transferred to another division. The episode ends as McCoy says he once thought people should be consistent; he expected that "pro-lifers would oppose capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
" and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activists "would claim some [rights] for the unborn." He concludes that it's a "messy world" and tells Rubirosa and Cutter to "figure it out."
Reception
The episode was widely praised on the pro-life blogosphereBlogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
, which had condemned the murder of George Tiller but appreciated the episode's handling of the abortion issue as a whole. Jill Stanek
Jill Stanek
Jill Stanek is an American pro-life activist from Illinois, best known for her allegations regarding "live birth abortions" that she publicly testified were being performed at Christ Hospital in the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn...
wrote that she expected "the plot would not go well for pro-lifers. The most I expected was milliseconds of fairness with pro-abortion clichés ruling the hour." Instead, she wrote, "My, was I surprised. I could have written that script. The episode wasn't even balanced. It was outright pro-life, not that I mind." She asked, "In a town bent on stirring controversy, does Hollywood now think the pro-life view is in, hot - the new gay?" Dave Andrusko of the National Right to Life Committee
National Right to Life Committee
The National Right to Life Committee is the oldest and largest pro-life organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. The group works through legislation and education to work against abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted...
wrote, "What makes the Law & Order episode so riveting is that virtually every pro-life argument you knew you would never hear on a network program is a part of 'Dignity'...More important, it occurred to me as I listened in utter astonishment that each of these observations could have been presented in a way that was artificial, forced, or (as so often is the case with network portraits of pro-lifers) something that you would expect from an idiot. None of that was the case. These were real flesh-and-blood people, not caricatures."
However, the episode was condemned by many pro-choicers
Pro-choice
Support for the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-choice movement, a sociopolitical movement supporting the ethical view that a woman should have the legal right to elective abortion, meaning the right to terminate her pregnancy....
. Sarah Seltzer of RH Reality Check said it was an "abortion disaster" and "wasteland of TV." Kate Harding of Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
said NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
was spreading "anti-choice propaganda".