Hello?...Hi
Nick, how's it going?...oouu really?!...Maybe it is time for
us to get together for a drink so we can talk a bit...all right...fine
for me...at 3 o'clock at the Quincy bar...Byeee!
So...Laura
has decided...
She
is having an interview next week, after that the necessary examinations
and in fifteen or twenty days the operation.
She'll put everything behind her at last.
Of
course, I am sorry that she is having the abortion. Nick told
me he would be happy to have a child. But they are still so
young.
Laura said her husband realized that for the time being they
are not in a position to keep the baby. After all, she should
be the one to decide.
Well,
who knows if it is really only her call. There is a life at
stake. She carries another life inside her body. It is about
a month or a month and a half since she got pregnant. The embryo
is quite developed at this stage.
What
if the anti-abortionists are right claiming that every abortion
is legalized murder?
The
bottom line is there are two lives involved, not just one. You
can not crush one life, defenceless as it is, in order to comply
with the demands of another person. Not even if it implies solving
problems, however serious, of that person.
That
is simply not true. The only person really involved is the woman,
whose pregnancy is a very unique state. A new life is about
to evolve inside her but it is not yet formed. It is a life
in the making.
In
such a situation the only person with the right to decide whether
to keep the baby or not is the woman. It is a question of freedom.
If
the woman doesn't want to keep the baby she has the right to
interrupt her pregnancy.
When
the feminist movements around the world fought for the right
to abort they did it for a reason. They fought for the woman's
right to regain control of her own body. It is a fundamental
right of every person. It is unacceptable that the pregnant
state should become the pretext to deprive women of this right.
I've
never felt so confused. All these doubts did not assail me years
ago.
Maybe
the fact that my closest friend is experiencing this difficult
situation makes me ponder the background more carefully. I just
can't decide clearly which is the morally right choice.
What
did Abraham Lincoln say? "No one has the right to decide
one thing if that thing is wrong."
Maybe
the main issue here is not woman's free choice but the question
whether abortion is right or wrong. And if abortion is wrong,
no woman has the right to commit this wrong.
The
fundamental dilemma is this: does the life of a person begin
with birth, with delivery to this world, or does it begin earlier
on in the mother's womb?
Is
a foetus a living human being or not? We must first understand
what life is.
If
life is essentially the capacity of cells to reproduce and differentiate
to form organs, than the foetus is a living being. And no doubt,
it is a human being because it already has all the chromosomes
of a human being.
It
certainly is a potential human being.
In
this case, abortion is nothing but a crime and legalizing abortion
equals legalizing murder.
Yet,
this can't be. It's all crap.
The
life of a human being is all about relations. The foetus has
no relations with the world nor with other humans except through
its mother.
It
is simple biology that gives the mother control over the foetus's
life and this life is not yet a human life.
There
are cases where abortion seems clearly to be the best choice
both for the mother and for the child.
A
recent case comes to my mind of a child being born practically
without a brain. The mother was aware of it because of the exams
she underwent, yet she didn't want to abort. Isn't this one
truly unhappy child? Wouldn't it have been better for it not
to have been born?
Let's
try to imagine what would happen if abortion became illegal
like it was before a law was passed.
Women
would continue to abort, this is one sure thing.
Abortions have been performed at all times and in every social
class.
The
truth is that abortion, though sad, has always been a means
of birth control.
Now,
it may be an improper means but it has always also served that
purpose.
If
abortion was illegal, it would be performed without medical
assistance and in poor hygienic conditions. Illegal abortion
would also imply illegal profits for those practicing it.
It
would mean more deaths among women who chose what should be
their right under the law. Do we really want to take this step
back to times when women were dying of abortion?
All
of these considerations matter very little if the foetus is
indeed a living human being and if destroying a life is a crime.
I think I have read somewhere that abortions walk hand in hand
with infantile organs' traffic.
It
involves those late abortions that are performed after 30 weeks
of gestation.
These
abortions are done with special techniques to allow the extraction
of a living foetus or at least with the organs still functioning.
There
are even organizations that thrive on this traffic. They have
connections with abortion clinics and deliver the foetuses or
the necessary organs to the buyers. The bigger and more developed
the organs, the higher the price. I've read about cases where
the foetus appears dead but when they open it, the heart is
still beating. It is a disgusting business.
Here's
the dilemma: do we want to safeguard the foetus's right to life
or the mother's right to free choice?
Antonio Caronia.
DemoKino - Virtual Biopolitical Parliament - Abortion.