Abortions are not a good thing, but they are better than the alternative

[etherial]

She told me if her parents found out she was pregnant she would be disowned and kicked out of the family home. She also told me that her brothers would murder her boyfriend, and I believed her. About an hour after her operation I and my nurse saw her and her boyfriend walking out of the clinic hand in hand, and I said to my nurse, "Look at that. We saved two lives today."

Comments

Feh!

[kadath.livejournal.com]

Abortions are not a good thing

Heart disease is not a good thing, but open heart surgery is.

Unwanted pregnancy is not a good thing, but abortions are.

[anitra.livejournal.com]

This is why I remain torn about abortion. I suppose it's the "lesser of two evils". Better is not getting pregnant in the first place. I may be a conservative Christian, but I'll make sure my kids know how to use a condom, just in case they ever need it.

Fetal Calculus

[da-popa.livejournal.com]

I guess the conclusion of whether the doctor's telling is a touching example of saving lives, an attempt at rationalization for taking them, or somewhere in between depends on which values one uses in their thinking.
That is to say:
1. How much is a fetal human "worth" compared to a born human;
2. What are the odds of death involved for the parties in the situation;
3. How much is quality of life worth compared to life?

While we probably could not seriously find an objective and true value for the above, perhaps (BIG perhaps) if we as a society could at least talk about it in these cold terms, we could be able to sit down and really hash out mutually agreeable and beneficial solutions (ex. all sides could express support & provide funding for programs that would increase post-natal quality of life instead of being afraid that any collaboration would be a "concession" to "the other side"). As it stands, our politicians and lobbyists will probably continue to create villains & heroes, thereby mobilizing & polarizing voters while doing nothing to actually better the situation for anyone involved.