To read about F's and my London trip, start here and click "newer post" to continue the story.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Well, I am stunned.

I've long thought that people who support abortion, or rather that subset of such people who say there's nothing wrong with it (as distinct from those who admit that it's murder but support it anyway) show an extreme lack of logical thinking when they confer human status on a baby only after it's born - as if it might be a cat or a walrus beforehand. There's nothing magical about the birth process. It's not like a baby was a blob of featureless protoplasm that the magical act of birth put a human stamp on.

Now that idea is turned on its head. Doctors: let us kill disabled babies.

The college’s submission was also welcomed by John Harris, a member of the government’s Human Genetics Commission and professor of bioethics at Manchester University. “We can terminate for serious foetal abnormality up to term but cannot kill a newborn. What do people think has happened in the passage down the birth canal to make it okay to kill the foetus at one end of the birth canal but not at the other?” he said.

One used to read about primitive cultures that exposed newborns who weren't perfect. One used to read about them in such a way that it was made clear that these were uncivilized and unenlightened people. Apparently those cultures are us.

God, forgive us. God, save us from ourselves.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Laura, you said "newborns who weren't perfect". I read this article but it's not about babies who aren't cute or perfect. It's babies with severe abnormalities. It's rather different. Your post is a bit misleading. I'm not for abortion, because as you say, nothing magical happens on the birth canal, but... if you have a newborn in a lot of pain, you know he/she will never heal, what would you do if the doctor says that just disconnecting from a machine...
I don't know, tough subject.

Laura(southernxyl) said...

Nuri, by law late abortions are only legal in the UK for severe abnormalities, but here is a report of a late abortion done because a child had a cleft palate.

And they're not talking about disconnecting from a machine, they're talking about outright killing. From the article:

“A very disabled child can mean a disabled family,” it says. “If life-shortening and deliberate interventions to kill infants were available, they might have an impact on obstetric decision-making, even preventing some late abortions, as some parents would be more confident about continuing a pregnancy and taking a risk on outcome.”

Life-shortening and deliberate interventions to kill are a bit different from disconnecting machines and having Do-Not-Resuscitate orders - they are doing that now.

You're right, though, it is a tough subject and I am grateful to God that I have not been faced with it.