I posted my thoughts about abortion last November in my journal here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/beckyzoole/91898.html).
I hold certain principles to be true:
1. Just as death occurs at brain death, so life occurs at brain life. At the beginning of the second trimester, the normal fetus begins to exhibit electrical activity in the structures that will develop into the brain. Before that point, I have absolutely no moral qualms about abortion for any reason.
2. It is not right to be kinder to a pet than to one's own child. If the child will be born with a severe, debilitating condition -- particularly one that will lead to an inevitable early death -- then it is better to abort as early as possible, rather than let that child suffer at length.
3. The mother's life and health must be preserved. If there is a good chance that continuing the pregnancy would be dangerous to the mother, then an abortion is a medical necessity. Note, I am not talking only about emergency situations. Last year I attended the visitation of a lovely and much-loved 24-year-old woman. Recently married and pregnant with her first child, her doctor had advised her to abort the pregnancy, since the epilepsy medication she took could be harmful to the child. The young woman was a religious Baptist, and would not consider aborting. Instead, she discontinued her medications. During her fifth month of pregnancy, she had a severe seizure while she was at home alone, and suffocated. I wish she had had an abortion, instead.
4. The mother's life and health may be endangered by severe depression and shame, as well. If a woman is very distraught over an unplained pregnancy, it may be life-saving for her to get an abortion. I cannot tell what may be unbearable for another person; that must be left up to each woman who finds herself in that awful situation.
5. Adoption is an option, but a very, very difficult one. Immediately after birth, a new mother's body is typically flooded by "bonding" hormones, that make her extremely attached to the new baby. According to my OB/Gyn, who has been practicing for 30 years, he has known many patients who intended to give a baby up for adoption but could not bring themselves to do it once the baby was born. He has known only one patient who actually signed the adoption papers -- but she changed her mind shortly afterwards, and after a nasty legal battle got the baby back from the adoptive parents. Once the hormonal effect wears off, many women are amazed that they did not go through with their plans. Without an intensely negative social stigma against keeping the baby, most women will not give the baby up for adoption, no matter how economically difficult it is.
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Date: 2004-12-30 06:57 pm (UTC)I hold certain principles to be true:
1. Just as death occurs at brain death, so life occurs at brain life. At the beginning of the second trimester, the normal fetus begins to exhibit electrical activity in the structures that will develop into the brain. Before that point, I have absolutely no moral qualms about abortion for any reason.
2. It is not right to be kinder to a pet than to one's own child. If the child will be born with a severe, debilitating condition -- particularly one that will lead to an inevitable early death -- then it is better to abort as early as possible, rather than let that child suffer at length.
3. The mother's life and health must be preserved. If there is a good chance that continuing the pregnancy would be dangerous to the mother, then an abortion is a medical necessity.
Note, I am not talking only about emergency situations. Last year I attended the visitation of a lovely and much-loved 24-year-old woman. Recently married and pregnant with her first child, her doctor had advised her to abort the pregnancy, since the epilepsy medication she took could be harmful to the child. The young woman was a religious Baptist, and would not consider aborting. Instead, she discontinued her medications. During her fifth month of pregnancy, she had a severe seizure while she was at home alone, and suffocated. I wish she had had an abortion, instead.
4. The mother's life and health may be endangered by severe depression and shame, as well. If a woman is very distraught over an unplained pregnancy, it may be life-saving for her to get an abortion. I cannot tell what may be unbearable for another person; that must be left up to each woman who finds herself in that awful situation.
5. Adoption is an option, but a very, very difficult one. Immediately after birth, a new mother's body is typically flooded by "bonding" hormones, that make her extremely attached to the new baby. According to my OB/Gyn, who has been practicing for 30 years, he has known many patients who intended to give a baby up for adoption but could not bring themselves to do it once the baby was born. He has known only one patient who actually signed the adoption papers -- but she changed her mind shortly afterwards, and after a nasty legal battle got the baby back from the adoptive parents. Once the hormonal effect wears off, many women are amazed that they did not go through with their plans. Without an intensely negative social stigma against keeping the baby, most women will not give the baby up for adoption, no matter how economically difficult it is.