Respect life in or out of the womb
Published:Saturday | May 10, 2014 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Pro-life atheist Kristine Kruszelnicki, in her essay 'A Secular Case Against Abortion', writes: "Abortion is emotionally ... but not morally complex ... [I]f the preborn are human beings, no justification for abortion is morally adequate ... . Would we kill a two-year-old whose father suddenly abandons his unemployed mother, in order to ease the mother's budget, or prevent the child from growing up in poverty?"
In the example above, we would (and should) find compassionate ways of helping BOTH the mother AND the child. So why not apply it to abortion?
Dr Keith L. Moore's The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, used in medical schools worldwide, states: "Human development begins at fertilisation, the process during which a male gamete or sperm unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialised, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual." Science opposes abortion.
Some say that, because the fetus cannot survive on its own, it is not life. Kruszelnicki has countered it quite effectively:
"But are dependent humans not fully human? Does a conjoined twin's dependence on a sibling's heart or lungs disqualify her from personhood? ... Moreover, is it truly the mark of a civilised people that the more vulnerable and dependent a human is, the more we can justify his or her death?"
Rape victims must be given all the support they need, but does that include abortion? Kruszelnicki answers:
"If the preborn is a human being, the circumstances of one's conception have no bearing on his or her right to not be exterminated ... . While the rape victim did not choose and is unfairly put into this position, her basic obligation to her dependent human offspring is no less real than that of the sailor with an unwanted stowaway ... . Abortion neither unrapes a woman nor helps her heal. Let's punish the rapist, not his child."
Will we now put our facts before emotions and declare abortion does more harm than good? To conclude with Kruszelnicki's words: "We have evolved as a species into a complex and interdependent community that is gradually doing away with prejudices like racism, sexism, and ableism. Let us now dispense with the lethal discrimination of ageism."
HAL LEWIS
Hellshire, St Catherine