October 25, 2007

Life or Strife

Life is Good!

Life is precious.

Life begins at the first division of cells.

Human life is much more complicated than just being alive. We have to deal with families, neighbors, politics, bullies, abusers, making a living, war, etc.

I cannot decide what is the right thing for a woman to do when she has an unwanted pregnancy. I'm not living her life. It shouldn't be anyone's decision but hers. There are too many complicating factors.

There are times when it is more moral and merciful not to bring a child into a life of lifelong poverty, illness, mental or physical abuse, or unhealthy family relationships. Sometimes these decisions are made after conception, which is unfortunate, but we should not punish a child for poor decisions of their parents in a moment of careless passion.

Sex education and easily available contraception should be used to education everyone and prevent these situations, even then it is not a complete solution. Humans make mistakes, and then there are the victims of sexual abuse. Telling people that abstinence is the only way is not much use to victims of rape or those who been prohibited from sex education and do not know the consequences of their actions.

Story of Raquel

Abortion prohibition will not eliminate the demand or need for legal and safe abortion.

Abortion prohibition will not eliminate abortion any more than the prohibition of certain drugs has eliminated those substances.

Abortion prohibition will increase the number of abortions, and the number of women who die or left barren because of unsafe medical procedures.

Abortion prohibition will eliminate the chance to counsel those seeking abortion on alternatives and mental health counseling of those women.

The rich will continue to go somewhere where it can be done safe and legally, the poor will receive the unsafe back room medical procedure.

One last point. This is not a religious issue. According to their documentation, abortion is wrong, but is is not considered murder (Exodus 21:22) and "God" does not give a person life and a soul until they take their first breath (Genesis 2:7). Bible scholars will tell you that bible quotes are useless, because any point can be contradicted by another bible quote, so using the bible as a guide for your life is pointless. We've learned much since those ancient writings (we have eaten the fruit).

Jesus and Mo' debate the issue and one more time

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey! I love eating fruit, strawberries are high on the list!

It's easy to comment on something when we are not faced with it head-on!

My mother, in her 30s, would say that she would if it were to happen again... guess what? I have a 21-year-old bro... ;-)

Using it as contraception is another story...

I'm still pro-choice. Again easy for me to say, I'm not in the situation...

Love you!
XOXOXOXO

Pam said...

I am also conflicted on "when life begins" but tend to think more of when the nervous system develops than at the first division of stem cells.

Abortions have been around forever, performed by midwives or even leaving unwanted babies outside to be eaten by wolves. It will continue, legal or not. Safe and legal is the true "pro-life" stance.

Anonymous said...

There surely is no black and white. It's all grey. I'm big on human rights...that of the women who have to face these choices and live with them. I hate it as a means of birth control, and don't really like the notion of abortion at all, but I also don't really like the notion of women dying with coat hangers between their legs, either.

Michael Bains said...

"When life begins" is the Straw Man. It's not about Life. Never was. Never will be. An amoeba has life. A lichen. A dog. An embryo of any species of plant or animal.

It's about a female human's RIGHT to decide what happens inside her OWN body.

Well, it's about Rights, not Life, at any rate. Life is well defined. Rights are what Societies ascribe to their citizens. It seems an empirical fact that Societies which develop a higher, healthier Quality of Life have it over those which rely upon those "comforting lies".

azgoddess said...

interesting post...and as a Buddhist, i happen to believe that the soul enters the body at first breath...they is when 'we' enter this world - until that time, we are an empty physical shell; just like after death - it's just that shell is usually in better shape at birth than death - smile

having had an abortion and then two children..i'd have to say i'm glad i had that choice when i was in my last year in college...selfish as that may sound..what i did was ask my child to come back to me in a few years - and i believe my daughter did just that - which is why she spent most of her life pissed as hell at me - laughing...

hugs and peace my friend!

Anonymous said...

Life is ... :-)

Mauigirl said...

Good post, Nick. I agree with you. And I've never had a problem reconciling my belief in keeping abortion legal and the fact that there is no denying there is some kind of "life" when conception occurs. But it's certainly not the same as a fully developed human being's life.

The closer to birth, the more ambivalent I get about it though; 12 weeks seems long enough to allow abortion except under unusual circumstances.