Abortion

My cousin recently gave birth to her first child. There were some complications, however, and the baby had to be delivered through a cesarean section four weeks early. At first she seemed healthy, but within seconds of the delivery the effort of crying was apparently too much for the premature baby and they had to put her on a special machine. Now, what interested me about K. (that’s her first name,) is that even though she was working her way to be two months early she still seems completely human. K. even smiled and giggled whenever they played with her. As far as I can tell she’s completely human. She laughs, cries, reacts to pain, even seems to have formed a bond with her mother who she’s only seen a few times. Recently there was a great outcry because late term abortion doctor George Tiller was assassinated by pro-life extremists. (Doesn’t that seem ironic?) Anyway, he apparently aborted fetuses within days of the delivery date. 32, 33, 34 week old fetuses. Now, what caught me about this is that K. isn’t even as old as some of these fetuses he’s killing. So, if he were killing premature baby is like K., that’d be essentially the same thing. Early term abortion can be understood, but honestly it seems to me that this man did a terrible thing as worthy of death as anything else, more than once. He was continuing to do so unchecked until he was assassinated. I don’t agree with civilians taking justice into their own hands, but how can people feel so urged to defend this man when these very same people would be praising the killer if the abortion ‘doctor,’ instead took the life of Kimberly-Prudence? How can any modern or progressive individual possible support late term abortion or disagree that somebody murdering a fully developed child is anything other than evil?

A friend of mine recently gave me a copy of an official report released by the United States Senate Subcommittee. Apparently they invited medical and scientific officials from all across the world to discuss the scientific status of a fetus. There wasn’t any debate. All agreed that human life began at some point during the initial conception except one who said he didn’t know. Here’s a quote from the report. “Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being - a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings.” Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, Report, 97th Congress, 1st Session, 1981 I did some further snooping on the internet and found that the medical and scientific community is in universal agreement on the fact that human life begins upon conception. This leads me to a few questions. Does scientific life necessarily coincide with moral life? In a secular society do we have room to make judgments based on moral perspective when science is out of sync with our observation? I mean, Obama promise to ‘put science in its rightful place.’ But, if we do that doesn’t that mean we have to overturn Roe v. Wade? I mean, I know Roe v. Wade didn’t expressly say that a fetus wasn’t human. But if it is human-and scientifically it apparently is-then why do the laws concerning born children not apply? Is it any less constitutional to legally require a woman to carry a child for 8-9 months than it is to force a parent to labor for eighteen years to provide for a born child? Thank you for you time.

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