|
Abortion Life or Death Who Chooses? In Roman times, abortion and the
destruction of unwanted children was permissible, but as out civilization has
aged, it seems that such acts were no longer acceptable by rational human
beings, so that in 1948, Canada along with most other nations in the world
signed a declaration of the United Nations promising every human being the right
to life. The World Medical Association meeting in Geneve at the same time,
stated that the utmost respect for human life was to be from the moment of
conception. This declaration was re-affirmed when the World Medical Association
met in Oslo in 1970.
Should we go backwards in our concern for the life of an
individual human being? The unborn human is still a human life and not all the
wishful thinking of those advocating repeal of abortion laws, can alter this.
Those of us who would seek to protect the human who is still to small to cry
aloud for it's own protection, have been accused of having a 19th Century
approach to life in the last third of the 20th Century.
But who in reality is
using arguments of a bygone Century? It is an incontrovertible fact of
biological science - Make no Mistake - that from the moment of conception, a new
human life has been created. Only those who allow their emotional passion to
overide their knowledge, can deny it: only those who are irrational or ignorant
of science, doubt that when a human sperm fertilizes a human ovum a new human
being is created.
A new human being who carries genes in its cells that make
that human being uniquely different from any and other human being and yet,
undeniably a member, as we all are, of the great human family. All the fetus
needs to grow into a babe, a child, an old man, is time, nutrition and a
suitable environment. It is determined at that very moment of conception whether
the baby will be a boy or a girl; which of his parents he will look like; what
blood type he will have.
His whole heritage is forever fixed. Look at a human
being 8 weeks after conception and you, yes every person here who can tell the
difference between a man and a women, will be able to look at the fetus and tell
me whether it is a baby boy or a girl. No, a fetus is not just another part of a
women's body like an appendix or appendage. These appendages, these perfectly
formed tiny feel belong to a 10 week developed baby, not to his or her mother.
The fetus is distinct and different and has it's own heart beat. Do you know
that the fetus' heart started beating just 18 days after a new life was created,
beating before the mother even knew she was pregnant? By 3 months of pregnancy
the developing baby is just small enough to be help in the palm of a man's hand
but look closely at this 3 month old fetus. All his organs are formed and all
his systems working. He swims, he grasps a pointer, he moves freely, he excretes
urine.
If you inject a sweet solution into the water around him, he will swallaw
because he likes the taste. Inject a bitter solution and he will quit swallowing
because he does not like the taste. By 16 weeks it is obvious to all, except
those who have eyes but deliberately do not see, that this is a young human
being. Who chooses life or death for this little one because abortion is the
taking of a human life? This fact is undeniable; however much of the members of
the Women's Liberation Movement, the new Feminists, Dr. Henry Morgentaler or the
Canadian Medical Association President feel about it, does not alter the fact of
the matter.
An incontrovertible fact that cannot change as feelings change. If
abortion is undeniably the taking of human life and yet sincere misguided people
feel that it should be just a personal matter between a women and the doctor,
there seems to be 2 choices open to them. (1) That they would believe that other
acts of destruction of human beings such as infanticide and homicide should be
of no concern of society and therefore, eliminate them from the criminal code.
This I cannot believe is the thinking of the majority, although the tendency for
doctors to respect the selfish desire of parents and not treat the newborn
defective with a necessary lifesaving measure, is becoming increasingly more
common. (2) But for the most part the only conclusion available to us is that
those pressing for repeal of the abortion laws believe that there are different
sorts of human beings and that by some arbitrary standard, they can place
different values on the lives of there human beings.
|
