Operating on a fetus

September 2, 2001 4:56 AM

Operating on a fetus to elicit further commentary on an earlier posting as to what is and is not human life, this article might raise some interesting observations.
posted by Postroad (8 comments total)

Rather than a question of, what is human life, this is more of a question of the value of a human life. Is it better in some cases to abort a fetus that will develop into a person that can not care for him/herself? Is it cruel to deny the fetus a chance to become a person and contribute to the world in ways that can't be predicted? or is it cruel to give the fetus a chance to become a person who will be in pain and who will feel excluded from society, unable to take part in "normal" activities? And where do you draw the line? how severe does the problem have to be? I'm glad I'm not faced with these decisions because I really don't know.
posted by percine at 5:06 AM on September 2, 2001

I think I would have aborted and tried again.
posted by pracowity at 5:20 AM on September 2, 2001

Ugh, I should've known better than to try to read that while eating breakfast.
posted by zztzed at 5:34 AM on September 2, 2001

The real question is "Do we have the authority to make the decision who will live and who will die based on our own ignorant perspective?"

We have no idea what that child will become. Only God does.
Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, and the like have all done amazing things for society and the world.

Who has the authority to cut a life short? I believe that we should let fate play things out. If the child is to die, let it be not at the hand of a knife but by natural causes.

I would not want to live with "What ifs"....Like "What if I was responsible for ending the life of a Ghandi, Jesus, Beethoven or Einstein?" And....even if the child didn't have some huge, worldly impact, knowing people with disabilities, changes people who are in contact with them...It creates sensitivity, appreciation and proper perspective about what is important in life.

These are my thoughts and what fall on my conscience when asked if I believe in abortion or not.
posted by Sonserae at 8:08 AM on September 2, 2001

Who has the authority to cut a life short? I believe that we should let fate play things out. If the child is to die, let it be not at the hand of a knife but by natural causes.

I agree. Natural causes are the way to go. If you're not sure you want your baby, go out to the woods and leave it there. Or just ignore it until it stops crying. Turn the heat off and feed your baby only raw meat. What is with this worship of the natural cause? How do you determine a natural cause? And at what point does it just mean 'no one's fault'? Is it okay to let someone suffer so that no one will have to take responsibility?
posted by Hildegarde at 11:07 AM on September 2, 2001

I think you contradict yourself.
Abortion is relieving oneself of one's responsibility.
Not being willing to take care of an ill person, is another.
Not allowing someone to live out of convenience, is the ultimate in irresponsibility. Everyone has rights. If someone does not want to live anymore, give them the right to say it themselves rather than deciding it for them. That is all I'm saying.
posted by Sonserae at 11:13 AM on September 2, 2001

Sonserae: Like you, I'm opposed to abortion. If the fetus can be healed by an operation without undue risk to the mother, it should not be aborted. However, if a reasonable parent, upon full consideration of the best interests of the child, were to decide that the child was better off dead, I'd have a really difficult time allowing the state to overrule that decision. The choice is too personal.

There's just one problem with my theory: it's theory. In practice, it would be virtually impossible to parse the motivations of each individual parent. Absent that ability, the state has a responsibility to protect the rights of each of it's citizens. If you assume that the unborn is a child, that would force the state to intervene and prevent the abortion.

This is a really, really hard issue. I don't really like either option.
posted by gd779 at 11:51 AM on September 2, 2001

What strikes me as rather odd about those who feel that a fetus ought to be saved if in fact it can be is so often those who do not believe in abortion and in such instances would save the foetus have no medical coverage to do so...
posted by Postroad at 1:55 PM on September 2, 2001