Thursday, November 08, 2007

Moral or Humane



Would you rather be moral or humane?

Face book calls it a cause and a little while ago woman around the world were queuing up to join the “if you cant take care of it keep your legs closed” cause. The page showed horrific pictures of the results of abortions, the graphics were disturbing and it had those woman spitting mad.
One poor woman who had obviously opted for an abortion was ripped apart in the comments section and Chaz even blogged about it.
Chaz and I also discussed this at length and at the end of the day it was evident that I had not yet formulated an opinion about the subject that I could completely stand by.

However after putting a great deal of thought into it I have come up with something and against all expectations I am going to say that I support the legalization of abortion.

I realized that so many people were taking the moral high ground by saying that abortion is murder and saying that woman who can’t afford the financial responsibility of taking care of the child should stop having sex.

I counter the latter statement with pure logic…
Build a bridge and get over it…
They will not stop having sex and saying that they should is pissing in to the wind.

Unwanted pregnancies are here to stay especially in under developed countries and among the poor.

Before I start my explanation I want you all to realize that I am not condoning any of this but rather that I realize that the problem of unwanted children is one that will not be solved for years to come and in the mean time it has become a situation of picking the lesser of two evils

A little while ago a new born was found wrapped in plastic bag and buried alive. It was a miracle in itself that the child survived.
Another was thrown down a pit toilet and hundreds are discarded on rubbish dumps in dustbins and open pieces of felt.
The child in the picture above was left in the felt at the mercy of hungry predators.

Mothers who don’t want their children will get rid of them one way or another whether they throttle them with their own umbilical cord before flushing them down the toilet or whether they abort the fetus.

This is the fact and this is where we have to choose, are we going to be moral and say that this is murder and perhaps sentence that child to a worse fate

Or are we going to be humane and spare that child from drowning or being buried alive by giving the mother the option of abortion.

Look at it this way a fetus that is not fully developed and fully aware will suffer a whole lot less at the hands of abortion than a new born fully developed baby would when starving slowly to death

Somebody is telling me that the child in the picture is okay…so there is hope right?
However the lady who found the child in the felt says that for every one that they save there a thirteen others that die long painful deaths.

So what do you think
Humane or Moral ?

20 comments:

Szarek(Will) said...

Humane without a doubt...How can some one leave a child...THEIR CHILD in the field to die...were they could have gotten an abortion and the child would have passed away without unneccesary pain...

If the child was still in the field...It could have been eatin,starved to death,etc etc...

NO...HUMANE by a landslide

Sweets said...

MORAL: abortion would never be an option for me. in the US they have in certain states a "safe haven" law, it enables anyone to take their unwanted baby to a policy station and to leave the baby there without any questions asked. i think all countries should have laws like that, i understand that some people can't afford to keep the baby for whatever reason but that baby didn't ask to be born and has no defence, surely that life has to have some value.

Mr R Rabbit said...

Neither, when looking at important issues I try to leave morals out of it. What I would prefer to look at is practicality. It would be more practical, and make things simpler, if abortions were legalized with no questions asked.

It would also make things a lot simpler if anyone who asked for an abortion was then given a contraceptive implant and regular injections until such time as they actually want a child.

Fish said...

Screw Moral...after all, who says what Moral is...the Church?... God?
Dont make me laugh...the same people rape and abuse children....
I'm not the best person to use this expresion, but HUMANE

Sweets said...

just want to add that my moral views are not based on my religion, it's just how i feel... it's the way i am, can't change that and wouldn't even if i could.

;-)

Unknown said...

If the answer was as straight forward as suggested here, then the problem would have been resolved a long time ago.

I'm for neither, but I'm also not against either. How's that for sitting on the fence.

There are times when both are justified.

Claudia said...

God, anyone that just leaves their baby to die like that should just be sterilized! Definitely for the Humane in this one-let a woman have the choice-it's a personal choice that not everyone may take but at least it would be done in a clean and safe environment-because a woman that doesn't want that baby will find one way or another of getting rid of it! Having said that though...there should be some restrictions-I'm definitely against late term abortions unless it's a matter of saving the mother's life. If you've been pregnant for 7 months and all of a sudden you decided you don't want it anymore, tough shit. You've gone beyond the point of no return!

Odat said...

Humane....definitely! Sounds like your country is going thru what we did a long time ago....Hope they get it and catch up to the times because, as you said, they are not going to stop having sex.
Peace

Valley Girl said...

Good for you. I have had an abortion in the past and looking back, it was the right decision for me AND the child.

At the end of the day, the only person that can judge others is God. You can't make snap judgements about what is right or wrong until you've been n that person's shoes.

JR's Thumbprints said...

I'd rather be morally humane, or should I say humanely moral. You probably suspect that I'm riding the fence on this one. I'd have to agree.

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

I chose moral because the alternative is to allow people to escape their responsibility and that merely perpetuates more problems. However, in choosing moral, I believe it is also the moral imperative that all of us in our society must protect women better and give mothers more support that they do not feel that their only option is abortion. In a nutshell, I believe abortion is morally wrong but realistically, we cannot just ban it without giving a viable alternative (e.g. a practical child and mother support system). Until we give an alternative, abortion will always be with us.

Gremlin said...

Now you know how to spoil ones mood.....

Humane

Gremlin said...

P.S. Lee love wat jy met jou blog gedoen het.

AngelConradie said...

great post lee... very thought provoking.
i have said it before and i'll say it again... i don't judge anyone until i've been where they are.

Crankster said...

I'm not sure it's a fair delineation. I never really saw unborn children as independent beings, so I never saw abortion as murder.

And I've known too many people who suffered from parents who shouldn't have had children.

Ultimately, I'm not sure that the humane choice isn't also the moral one.

Nosjunkie said...

Wow this is obviously a big issue

Look I not saying that I think that people should have abortions but I am that it should stay legal sothat woman have the option or els so many more children will bedumped

I am also against late term abortions and I totally agree with claudia on that one.
three months should be the cut of.
I also believe that it should be a no questions asked situation.
and that underaged girls should be able to do it without parental concent.

I am devided as far as sterilisation is concerned especially when it comes to the younger girls as most of them are aborting to hide it from their moms and dads.
Perhaps it should just be discussed with the woman and should also be made freely available.

I also believe that since many africans have issues with condoms these woman should be introduced to a contraceptive shot.
their husbadns and boyfriends dont even have to know about it and they only have to go once every three months and this is already free

Big up for Vally girl by the way.
It takes guts to be open about that in our judgemental society

Anonymous said...

I figure if the law would get out of womens britches, the world would be a better place. Why is the onus soley on the woman? It clearly takes two to make a baby.

Maybe if legislation was passed that required all men to get fixed at 15 after donating to a sperm bank several loads, women wouldn't get pregnant until they went to the sperm bank to get that particular mans load.

Is that idea too radical? Why is it any more radical than legislating to control what a woman does with her body?

Abortions will happen whether it is legal or not. Sex will happen even when you teach abstinence only. Some mothers are never going to love their unwanted children and some fathers will always be absent.

The moral high ground on abortion starts with the man. Not the woman. What can we do to get men to stop objectifying women and start being more carefull themselves.

Since I like you and your blog and since I've been reading you this is the second post on abortion, I felt I needed to comment on one. Coming to terms with abortion is not easy, but remember, it takes two to tango.

Nosjunkie said...

Oh I completely agree with you there pool I negelcted to mention the men in the equation here since they can disapear so much easier than a woman can men can run away from babies woman are stuck with them for a while.
I like your sperm bank idee regardless of how radical it is I think that that gives a woman as many choices as men have and I think that it evens the playing ground

Shandra said...

Humane definetly. But for me being humane is closely connected to your own morality. So both.

I every woman deserves the right to choose. Especially in developping countries it's important to make them more accesible and faordable. Non llegislation only leads to unsanitary illegal abortions and horible infanticed like you mentioned.

There should indeed definitly be a specific time limit. Late term abortions can also have a lot of negative affect on the mother herself.

The contraceptive shot is a great idea. People here have issues with condoms too, and a lot of people don't even want to be seen buying them.

A month ago a girl who attends the high school I attended showed up with a baby at the police saying she found it on the street, it turned out that the baby was hers and that she had the child in a room with the help of a bff. Her parents had no idea she was pregnant. She stated to the police she was afraid of having to pay for an abortion because her parents would find out.

Whenever I hear stories like this: I think when are we going to become more open minded so that these things stop happening?

And it's really not about legal abortions , the root of the problem lies on the taboo in the society which makes birth control something people hardly use.
If birth control was more easily accesible and more accepted , abrotions wouldn't even be neccesary.

Oswegan said...

I agree with your position, and I don't think that being humane, as you put it, necessarily means it is immoral.

I think there is just as strong an argument that, allowing an unwanted child to come into the world, is equally immoral.

~Oswegan