No, not mine... I mean in general. I don't know why, but today I am thinking about life a lot. Perhaps it was Fr. John's Ash Wednesday reflection that started it all... I guess it probably was... Great! I get to blame my boss for this one...
Abortion, to me, is the biggest abuse against life in general in the US today. Believe it or not, a Pope called it in an amazing letter to the Christian Church that I think more people today should read. He predicted (prophesied?) that the wide spread acceptance of birth control would lead to the moral decay of our society... It appears that Pope Paul VI was correct... The issues he brings up and discusses are rants in and of themselves for me, so today I will stick with one side of the life issue... abortion.
I cringe every time I hear an infant in the womb called a fetus. It is dehumanizing to the little defenseless one growing in the womb. The argument I hear is that you can not dehumanize something that is not yet human (yeah okay... I guess you are carrying a toad, or perhaps a Chihuahua). But I think the deeper issue is the question of when life begins. As a Catholic, I believe that life begins at the moment of conception. From the time the sperm and the egg unite and cell division begins that is life. In the case of a man and woman conceiving, this must be human life. So, as a Catholic I believe that life begins at conception (redundant, but with enough repetition it may get through to some).
The definition of life beginning at conception is fine for me, but some argue that a baby is not truly alive until it can live on its own outside the womb. Fine... I disagree, but I have heard the arguments and while I disagree I can at least see where you are coming from. Yet can a week old baby live on its own outside the womb? No, it needs constant care... so I guess that baby is not alive... What about my 4 year old nephew? Can he live on his own outside the womb? No he can't. What about Shaun, the 22 year old downs syndrome man I used to take care of... Are you seeing how absurd that argument is yet? I mean at the end of his life, my grandfather (nearly 85) couldn't live without constant care of a nurse... was he not alive?
I think a step in right direction in this argument would be to define life as the opposite of death. Makes sense, since that is pretty much what life is... something that is not dead. Well, the medical community recognizes death as the absence of brain waves. It logically follows then that anything with brain waves is alive. This would mean that at about 6 weeks the fertilized human should be considered to be alive. If after six weeks you were to abort your pregnancy, you would be killing a human... premeditated murder in most cases.
I hate to criminalize the behavior of a potentially traumatized woman. I understand that there is a lot of emotion and confusion in some cases... in others the woman is just plainly misled, or pressured into it by supposed friends, families or lovers. But in all honesty, what harm can come from allowing another life into this world? In some cases, choosing not to terminate your child may actually be beneficial to your health. You never know what God intends to do with the situations we back ourselves into.
The question then turns to those that may be the victim of rape or incest. What do we do with their unwanted pregnancy? I can honestly tell you I just do not know. I would never advise my wife to abort a pregnancy... even that of another man who raped her. While the memory may be painful, the life that was created was created for a reason. If God can take the Crucifixion and make good come from it, then no matter what happens to me in this life, if I turn and give it to God, can be turned into good.
I guess underneath it all I can not see how a created life can not be a thing of joy. This is coming from someone who is not rich at all, and can not afford to feed his family without the help of a wife who works full time. Would be apprehensive or worried about making ends meet if God blessed us with another mouth to feed? Yes... Would we ever terminate that life because we would not be as comfortable as we would like to be? No... After all, as a Christian, the Crucifix is the symbol of our faith, and honestly that does not look too comfortable to me...
Prayers,
Pisio
No comments:
Post a Comment