Saturday, April 30, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
Monday, April 4, 2016
Abortion and Gestation
On the ongoing debate over abortion, sparked by the clumsy ramblings of Donald Trump and some interviews by Hillary and Bernie. . . Here is my unsolicited two cents:
These are parallel points, not mutually exclusive: a) science/biology tells us gestation IS a stage of human life b) if the fetus lives in her mother's womb she is subject to that real estate like it or not c) It is impossible to police everything an unhappily pregnant woman does and what she eats or drinks that might cause a deliberate miscarriage d) The real issue is whether the feelings of those who have had abortions need be protected from the reality of point a).
A sperm carrying 23 chromosomes is not a human being. It is cute to joke about and to put a voice-over onto a sperm or have Woody Allen dress as a sperm, but contrary to the Catholic teaching and the excellent satirical tune by Monty Python "Every Sperm is Sacred" they are not sacred at all. If you believe human life has inherent value, then that issue begins when its 23 chromosomes join with the 23 chromosomes (and RNA) of the ovum and the process of cell division - the process of becoming - begins. That's the process that is still going on in your life at this moment. Whether or not the fertilized embryo attaches to the uterus wall (as Bill Nye the Science Guy tells us it must) the conception of a human being has occurred. A spontaneous abortion may occur if an IUD or such other obstruction prevents attachment. But whether that makes you sad or indifferent - and whether or not you feel anything for a homeless person freezing to death in the street for the inherent value of his/her human life - gestation remains a phase of human life just as infancy, childhood, adolescence and menopause are called stages.
If abortion were legally treated as murder there are pragmatic real work concerns that make it a solution worse than the problem. What would be the statute of limitations on that form of murder? Could someone be charged as an accessory if they drive the abortive mother home from the clinic? And context is everything. We are told it is not murder and not immoral to respect an agreement within the military to allow oneself to be deployed to a battle and kill people with whom we have no personal or business grudge. And yet it is illegal to kill someone we have witnessed personally killing friends or family or to kill a rapist whose existence is negligible. It is unfortunate that these discussions are spurred by the most careless opinion - like that of Trump - for whom punishment is an abstract thought and for whom everyday suffering can be shrugged off.
It's not a squeaky clean matter in any case. Anti-abortion law is a carrot appealing to emotion, something that just can't be sustained and that likely be one more way to make poor people miserable while rich people use connections to do as their whims dictate.
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