The complete confusion we have about the beginning of life in our society has been forcefully brought home to me today. Last night the UK Parliament voted to keep the legal limit for abortion at 24 weeks. This morning I buried with appropriate prayers the remains of a miscarried foetus which terminated spontaneously at 19 weeks. The family were distraught, not least because he looked so like a baby when he was stillborn (I hesitated at the pronouns in that sentence, having unthinkingly first written “it”.) Their grief this morning was that of parents who have lost a child, and that is how they thought of it. How long, however, can we, as a society, live with this kind of moral and emotional double-mindedness about where life begins?
Desperately confused over the beginning of life
May 21st, 2008 · 6 Comments · Culture, Ethics
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6 responses so far ↓
1 J. K. Gayle // May 21, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I dare say even the pagan Aristotle would be saddened as the majority MPs of one Barbarian government follow the direction of the majority Supreme Justices of another Barbarian government who follow the lead of the majority Roman Barbarian dictatorships who are more barbaric than the majority Greeks ever were.
Who can speak, who else will, for those who must start as “it”? When our mothers and their midwives or doctors or husbands brought us here, were we not, each one of us once, ‘it”? Then, “It’s a boy!” And “It’s a girl!” And so we cry, we can cry out, for joy. Thanks for sharing, for reminding with, our deep sad grief!
2 Eddie // May 21, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Radio four said that MPs were allowed to vote according to their consciences - it would appear many of them don’t have such a thing.
3 Richard // May 21, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Doug, that same sense of dissonance came home to me some years back when my wife was in hospital for treatment following a miscarriage. The nurses on the unit were extremely kind and sensitive towards her; the same staff then had to attend to others on the unit who were there to have their pregnancies terminated. I felt the irony very heavily indeed, as I’m sure many of them must have done.
4 Justin Anthony Knapp // May 21, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Doug,
Life-related issues are deeply important to me, and the debate over abortion in the United States is just as schizophrenic: I recall reading some extensive polling data in Time magazine in 2001 in which women were asked two questions (paraphrased) - 1.) Should a woman’s legal right to an abortion be protected? and 2.) Is abortion murder? A majority said “yes” to both questions! That means some percentage consider in their own minds that murder should be legal!
Similarly, in California, if someone murders a pregnant woman and the unborn child dies as well, the perpetrator can be tried for double homicide.
I subscribe to several British newspapers, and I honestly couldn’t read the coverage of this story. I’m literally getting ill just thinking about it now.
-JAK
5 rogermugs // May 21, 2008 at 11:23 pm
all of this is one of those subjects I just cant seem to wrap my head around. it breaks my heart. May God forgive the govt. and the decisions they sometimes make, and may God bless and help those who go through these valleys.
i’m at once completely unable to relate and absolutely horrified.
6 Core convictions re abortion « WilderVoice // May 29, 2008 at 5:52 pm
[...] Doug was carrying out a funeral: This morning I buried with appropriate prayers the remains of a miscarried foetus which [...]
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