I apologise if this post is uncharacteristically heavy for this blog. Feel free to skip it.I read a news story yesterday that absolutely boiled my blood.
An Italian woman opted to have her 22 week old baby aborted after scans revealed he was disabled. The procedure was carried out, the baby wrapped in a sheet, umbilical cord still attached, and abandoned.
But he was still alive.
20 hours later, the hospital chaplain discovered the little boy moving and breathing. He was then taken to intensive care, where he later lost his battle, and died.
As if this isn't disgusting enough on its' own, I just find the resulting 'logic' around the investigation absolutely preposterous. The law states that doctors 'had an obligation to try to preserve the life of a child if it survives a termination'.
What? So that's where the issue lies? That makes no sense at all. The issue is not that they tried to kill the baby, but rather that they didn't try to save it after they'd tried to kill it? Nonsense.
This is like me walking out on to the street right now, and stabbing a little child. And then me getting in trouble, not for stabbing the child, but for not bandaging him up afterwards. What a pile of crap.
As for the garbage about a fetus not yet being a baby, here's a list of developments of a 22 week old fetus:
* Your baby weighs close to a pound at this point
* Your baby can now hear your conversations more clearly than before. When you talk, read, or sing, expect her to hear you. Studies have found that newborns will suck more vigorously when read to from a book they heard frequently in utero.
* Eyelids and eyebrows are fully formed.
* He's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums.
* Fingernails have grown to the end of the fingers.
* His senses are also starting develop.
* Be prepared for all those "Why" questions coming! Your baby's brain has entered a stage of rapid growth, especially in what's called the germinal matrix. This structure deep in the middle of the brain serves as a kind of factory for brain cells and disappears shortly before birth. But the brain's amazing expansion program continues until around the five birthday.
* With some help from mum, baby's liver is starting to break down bilirubin, a substance produced by red blood cells.
* If your baby is male his testes begin their descent to the scrotum.
* Primitive sperm have formed and he is producing testosterone.
* Length is around 10.94 inches (27.8cm); weight is nearly 1 pound (430gm).
But yeah, I guess you could just see that as a cluster of cells.
6 comments:
So, so agree Ben. And, at 22 weeks, that same "cluster of cells" would definitely have access to any medical intervention available to save his/her life IF he/she was wanted. I believe they can save premature babies now from about 23-24 weeks.
I hear ya Ben! Boils my blood too. I especially find it ironic that if a pregnant woman is murdered, the accused can be charged with double homicide - but if she had chosen to abort the baby, that's perfectly legal - her choice in fact.
errrr!!!!
Yeah, I don't get it.
In the recent UK debate about whether to lower the abortion limit to 20 or 22 wks (from the current 24) the whole thing was about 'viability', that is, when can babies survive premature birth. But to me, this misses a huge elephant in the room. Apparently 10% survival rate is not high enough to consider 22 weeks 'viable'. Yet sure, if any babies are alive, no matter for how long, surely that means in the moments before leaving the womb it was also a living human child?
The pioneers of the pro-abortion movement recognise that abortion is killing - ending life, but they somehow deny that it is human life, and it seems that today many pretend it's not killing, or simply assume that it can't be human life. Where does the unborn become 'human'? Dawkins suggests that birth is as good a place as any to define it. Most religious people would say that conception is where human life begins. But I suggest that even if the line is somewhere fuzzy in between, surely the it's better to err on the side of caution and go earlier than later.
Also, a society that accepts abortion because of a cleft pallette is sending a terrible message about value and worth to people with physical issues. It's verging on eugenics. It's truly a disgusting story all round.
Julie- Yes, that's right. It is bizarre how with nothing more than the parent's 'attitude' towards the baby, the life can either bbe a precious jewel to do anything to save, or a dispensible growth and hinderance to be rid of. The child's value is determined then, merely by the parents oppinion of it. Very shaky ground.
Lu- Yes, it just shows how all these different laws really don't add up, but rather just contradict each other.
Findo- Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts. It just seems like if you follow the world's lines of logic, it will never make sense. There is no neat line to draw between 'cell cluster' and 'human'.
Thinking from God's perspectve, you see that our worth and value is there not only at birth, and not even only at conception, but even before this. I read this little bit in Jeremiah 1 this morning-
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Maybe even before conception, God knew us, set us apart, and planned our life! Valuable? Yes!!
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It just seems like if you follow the world's lines of logic, it will never make sense. There is no neat line to draw between 'cell cluster' and 'human'.
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Exactly.. and I think most people, when prompted, would prefer to err on the side of caution and go with conception rather than birth.
It would be wonderful to end abortion altogether, but perhaps at times we'll have more success arguing for something that's only 'less evil' like a reduced time limit.. I'm not sure..
I tend to think that moral or 'religious' arguments are generally ineffective for non-adherents and so we should aim for logical, non-religious arguments.. but I'm starting to wonder if that's misguided thinking, and that moral conviction is the answer.. hmm..
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