Guide to Informed Choices
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potential, I think of a possibility for the future, someone that doesn‘t actually exist but could come about, something not yet physical or real. For those who argue that the fetus is just a blueprint of a person, let me say — a house plan will never become
a house but an embryo will become a baby. 136
blueprint; he must be a baby-in-the- making.
If the fetus was just a potential, then you could visit a psychiatrist or exorcist for an abortion!
A lot of people believe the fetus is a potential life and that this somehow justifies taking that life. Yet, since the fetus is already physically in existence, an abortion must be a physical action as opposed to just psychological. After all, if the fetus was just a potential, then you could visit a psychiatrist or exorcist for an abortion! Instead, you go to someone who will physically remove the child. Because the child is physical and it does exist now. Let‘s read the next section and see why people are offended by being shown photos of ―potential life.‖
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How can we charge that it is vile and repulsive for pro-lifers to brandish vile and repulsive images if the images are real? 137
—Naomi Wolf, The New Republic
he offensive photographs of aborted fetuses would not be offensive if the fetus was just a potential person because, after all, if the fetus was just a potential, she wouldn‘t exist to be photographed in the first place! Logically, the fetus must not be a potential because photographic evidence shows actual body parts that resemble a person. I‘ll be honest with you. I don‘t like those abortion photographs either, but isn‘t it better to have viewed them and been informed rather than seeing them too late? America, wake up! The pictures of abortions that most people find so gross to look at are revolting. 138
They will make your stomach retch. They are the shocking, in-your-face reality of abortion. For a common first trimester abortion you might see a tiny human form. She is mutilated and lays in a pool of her own blood, a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh, and did I mention her little arms and hands so beautifully formed. Beside a dime they look miniature still. Sometimes the two little legs are still attached to the torso. To remove it from the mother‘s body, the head is usually crushed or mangled. What was her crime that she deserved a death like this? She was unwanted. Indeed, it‘s hard not to get emotional when you‘re looking at the crushed remains of an abortion — that by every means, sure looks like a baby to you. Wait till you hear about a second trimester abortion. (I‘ll save you from the description.) PS. For those who believe pro-lifers show fake aborted fetuses, do check out the actual fetal specimens in this book for medical students — Marjorie A. England, Life Before Birth. 139
(without reason) a video by Live Action Films showing a Planned Parenthood employee telling two patients that the photos they saw on the internet were not real. ―Um, no. It‘s not real. No, It‘s not. And you know what? Um, what I‘m, what I‘m…The thing is that… Um, it‘s, it‘s not real.‖
140 (She stumbled over that one!) Compare that
with the following confession found in an old pro-choice book: These people are political activists, Fran thought. Their work was critical to protecting abortion rights, but how many of them knew the reality of abortion, had seen the reality of what it destroyed? Fran felt like standing up and saying to those arguing for unrestricted abortions, ―You T
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haven‘t seen the little feet. They look just like the little feet pushpins the antis wear.‖ As a provider at Repro once said, if half the pro-choice people saw the fetal remains of a second-trimester abortion they would jump the fence into the anti‘s arms. 141
Quotable Quote ―If you haven't seen what abortion does, then you will never understand what abortion actually is.‖ 142
—Clenard Howard Childress, Jr., Life
Education And Resource Network
The fetus a potential and part of the mother‘s body? Abortion is not murder, because a fetus is not an actual
human being—it is a potential human being, i.e., it is a part of the woman. 143
—FAQ, Abortion is Pro-Life.com
o, let me get this straight — before abortion a fetus is potential only and part of the woman‘s body. At what point does he separate out and become his own body and at what point does he turn from potential into person? Is it when a woman changes her mind about abortion? Or at some magical moment of pregnancy? Or when the doctor catches her baby? Hey now, that doesn‘t make sense! The fetus, formed from a woman‘s and a man‘s DNA, is, once formed, always his or her own person.
Confessions from pro-choice literature ―The fetus at twelve weeks is essentially similar to a term infant, but in miniature.‖ 144
At this point, if you still think that a fetus is part of a woman‘s body, turn to Reason #25:
Abortion is about a woman‘s body, but….
It‘s undeniable from any scientific point of view that the fetus is alive and exists. A simple ultrasound will show you that. From a DNA standpoint alone, it‘s proven he is human in nature. Therefore, the fetus is an existing being who is human. So, maybe what they mean is, he isn‘t really a person. We‘ll take this argument up in the next reason.
Reason #10 ―The unborn child is not potential, but actual‖ S
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Reason #11 A fetus is a human and humans are persons
Does abortion kill a person? I should have known better. Pro-life arguments are now based on scientific evidence, and the pro-choice arguments are not. That is a cultural, historical fact. 145
ince they can‘t deny that abortion kills a fetus, pro-choicers have reassured us that it‘s okay because abortion does not kill one of us or ―a real person.‖ But this is a philosophical argument, not a scientific one. The Supreme Court also used this argument to legalize abortion. Yes, they said we could ignore laws protecting the right to life of every American, since they weren‘t
certain (and one has to be certain in these things) that such laws protecting the right of every ‗person‘ referred the unborn as well as the born. 146
After all, they defended, ―the Constitution does not define ‗person.‘‖ 147
Incidentally, it didn‘t define ‗citizen‘ before slavery either, and that‘s the reason the Supreme Court allowed slavery.
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This flawed reasoning has been repeated by others. such as ethics professor Joseph Fletcher, who claims that abortion ―is not
life in an embryo.‖ 149
Certainly if there is no person there can be no killing. Yet if there is no person, why is there a measurable human heartbeat and visible organs? What is meant by no human life is uncertain, since any high school biology book will show you a growing human embryo
is one
phase of
human development. (See Reason #2 for more on this.)
person?
Another quote from a pro-choice post abortion counseling newsletter says, ―I think fetal life is valuable, because I think fetuses have the potential to become human beings. But fetuses are not people. Women, on the other hand, are people.‖ 150
Again, being human is what we are from the beginning, so turn to Reason #2 if you disagree with that. Let‘s look at the most often repeated argument: the fetus is not equal to a person. S
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First of all, what is a person? Well, it depends on your definition. Did you know that common definitions of the word qualify a fetus as a person! Two definitions are ‗individual‘ and "human being." Well, the fetus is an individual, separate being, unique in DNA, sex, age and even fingerprints. The fetus is a human being too — the fetus is human and is a being, hence, a human being. Above all, remember that ‗person‘ is a social definition — the word itself has no meaning other than what we give it. Whereas we can prove something is human or not, by looking at their DNA, we cannot prove that someone is a person. Person is a subjective term and based on our personal opinion. Perhaps the real reason that some pro- choicers say that the fetus is not a person is that it is the ONLY thing they know to fall back on! The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to life and liberty for all people. The only way abortion is not human murder is if the fetus is somehow not a person. The non-person argument is very convenient, because it allows killing of what would otherwise be a person. (If you don‘t think abortion kills, turn to Reason
#26: Pro-choicers admit abortion is killing . ) Why is this word ―person‖ so important? In the Supreme Court's own admission, ―If this suggestion of personhood is established, [Roe]‘s case, of course, collapses, for the fetus‘ right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the Amendment.‖ 151
Factoid A woman in India recently won a court case seeking an insurance claim for her 7 month unborn grandchild who was killed in a car accident, along with her son and daughter in law. The court ruled that since the fetus was a living human, he was also entitled to insurance. 152
If she is not a person, what kind of being is she? et‘s start with a story to get across my first point. You may remember the Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion. Here‘s Jane Roe (actually Norma McCorvey is her real name) and she is going through a difficult time. After years working in the clinics her pro-choice defenses are starting to break down. She is starting to feel bad about selling abortions, especially when she sees visibly pregnant women arriving for terminations. She feels like telling them that they‘re in the wrong department for baby clothes. So, anyhow, she wants to break free of the industry, and begins to L
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sabotage her own job at the abortion clinic. When one lady calls up to enquire about an abortion for her 18-week pregnant daughter, the woman asks, ―Is it really a baby?‖ To which Norma replies, ―Ma‘am, how many children have you had?‖ ―Three,‖ she answers. ―What came out of your body? Were they fish, or were they little human babies?‖ The woman replies, ―That‘s preposterous. I had human babies, of course.‖ So Norma says, ―Well, I think you answered your own question.‖ 153
How can a human being not be a person?
Is it possible for your child to grow into a fish? Could she? Might she? Of course not! She is a human. A fetus is a person-in- the-making, not a rabbit-in-the-making. Since her parents are human beings, what else could she be but a human being? 154
Indeed, the fetus is a baby person in the same way that a puppy is a baby dog. She has the same nature as us, just as a tadpole has the same nature as a frog. Of course, a tadpole is not a frog‘s final stage. It is just one phase of the frog‘s existence. In any case, it is a frog-in-the-making, not, for example, a spider-in-the-making. My question to you is, if you do not think the fetus is a human being, then what kind of being is she? How could the fetus be anything else but a human being? And yet, this is what they think — ―A developing fetus is biologically alive. It grows and changes rapidly, but these characteristics do not make it alive as a person.‖ 155
that? Alive. Human DNA. Beating heart. Detectable brainwaves. Grows and develops into nothing but a newborn baby. Moves. Sucks his thumb. Swallows. Blinks. Looks like a baby early into pregnancy. But no, he‘s not a person. How can a living human not be a human being? How can a human being not be a person? Go figure and see if you can understand that way of thinking, because I can‘t.
Inconsistency! In the year 2000, the state of Kentucky approved a bill to give unborn children the recognition as a person from conception. The bill gave parents the right to sue if someone caused death to their unborn child. Ironically, if they caused their own child‘s death through abortion, this was specifically excluded for compensation! 156
Dr. Alfred Bongioanni, a professor of
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pediatrics and obstetrics, testified to the U.S. Senate judiciary subcommittee that ―I am no more prepared to say that these early stages [of development in the womb] represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty…is not a human being.‖ 157
A fetus is human from conception and humans, in my book, are persons.
There are many life stages as a ―person‖ e all go through many levels of existence or stages throughout our
life. These
include ―fetushood,‖ babyhood, toddlerhood, childhood and adulthood. Author Stephen Schwartz spoke of the fetus like this: ―He is hidden from view, he is smaller, more dependent, more fragile. But he is a real person, just like the born child. He is simply at an earlier stage of his life and development. If it is wrong to kill him later (post-birth infanticide), it is equally wrong earlier (prebirth infanticide).‖ 158
Of course, I‘m not saying that a fetus has the same physical or mental abilities as you or me. He doesn‘t, but give him time, and he will grow and show you all those skills that you think a person ought to have. Seriously, though, do abilities make you ―more human‖ instead of just a human? The non-person label is actually a very convenient one if you want to find a justification for abortion. The Nazis and the slave masters of the South would have loved it. In fact, they did use similar justification for their evil, but more on that later. Some people argue that the early embryo is only an inch or two in size and doesn‘t weigh much at all. That is true — but gold is very valuable in such small amounts, and are we not more precious than gold? After all, does that mean that a large man is more a person than, say, a tiny girl? Or does it mean that an older person has more rights than a younger person? Likewise, are we non-important because of our comparably miniscule size in relation to the universe? I say, it‘s not the quantity but the quality that counts.
If you don‘t fit my picture then you must not be a real person
Interviewer to abortionist ―Q: Does it bother you that a second trimester fetus closely resembles a baby? A: I really don‘t think about it…. It lacks emotional development. It doesn't have the mental capacity for self- awareness.‖ 159
—Abortionist Martin Haskell W
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ome so-called philosophers, such as Peter Singer, like to come up with certain qualities they think everyone should possess; and if not, they say you don‘t have a right to life. These qualities include things such as self-awareness, awareness of time and space and rationality. 160
Yet this sets a dangerous standard if you consider the groups of people in our society that do not qualify under that rule. An Alzheimer's patient may not be aware of time and space. An accident victim may be unconscious; and while he might have self-awareness, we certainly can‘t prove it. What about me on a bad day — I might not qualify for rationality either! Why should a fetus have all the qualities of an adult anyhow? Couldn‘t he be a ‗baby person,‘ still developing those qualities? Certainly he is not an adult person. He is a baby, and as such, will act like one. What‘s more, that kind of viewpoint denies that God is our Creator and that our worth comes from Him, not from some type of social education or intellectual prowess. As a believer in God, I would say the chief quality for being a person is being created a person by God. Since God created all of us, I would say that any stage of creation is a creation of God and something sacred. If you‘re wondering about the human side, just how responsive, intelligent and self-aware the unborn child is, check out any of these reasons. After reading them you might think the fetus has self- awareness after all.
Reason #55: Your unborn child can feel, taste, smell, hear and see
Reason #87: Your unborn baby is intelligent
Some people think that your right to live comes from your intellectual powers. For example, ―The source of an individual's right to life is one's nature as a rational being.‖ 161
If you believe that the fetus is not a person, on the basis that she lacks certain intellectual qualities, social skills or worldly experience, then you must also defend infanticide, because the human baby also lacks those very same qualities. Even supporters of this belief acknowledge this fact.
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The philosopher Albert Schweitzer looked at things a bit differently than Peter Singer. Instead of needing to prove that Yüklə 4,63 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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