Tag: Abortion

“Pro-Life” is just another kind of Abortion

AntiAbortionMemeThis poster featuring Mr. Kouki’s statement is extremely misleading: it assumes that the fetus is a being for whom all choices can be made independently of the mother, and ignores the fact that it is actually totally dependent upon its mother while still in the womb.  It is another round in the effort to create a law that prohibits certain activities (abortion, in this case) as a way of settling a moral debate, even though history proves that such prohibitions are almost always ineffective, and often cause far more harm than good.

While I agree that abortion is not a step to be taken lightly (and hopefully, only extremely rarely); viewpoints such as that expressed in this poster are also a form of abortion, since they separate the child from its mother in another way – by declaring that the mother must be responsible for their child, but only as long as their decisions with regard to the child conform to the dictates of others.  Think about it: this poster declares that it is absolutely acceptable to abort the mother’s life in favor of the child’s.  Or, to put it another way, instead of the mother being allowed to decide whether to remove a fetus from within her body; the state feels it is justifiable to remove that same fetus from the control of the mother – while it is still in her body.  (I’d also note that this notion, which is part of the the Tea Party’s stance on abortion is completely at odds with one of its most basic principles, which is that the government already intrudes too deeply into the lives of American citizens.)

Continue reading ““Pro-Life” is just another kind of Abortion”

Aborted Babies Being Incinerated for Electricity?

Note (6/23/14): As promised, I have kept tabs on this issue.  The blog posting that appeared to be the source of much of the furor has been deleted, but KOIN (a television station in Portland) did air a news article citing the allegations, which were originally made in the magazine “BC Catholic.”  

Snopes.com has posted an article summarizing their own investigation into the issue.  In summary, officials reacted quickly to the allegations: the incinerator facility in Oregon will not accept further shipments of medical waste until they are assured that aborted fetuses were not part of the waste stream, as is being alleged (but which has not been proven to be the case).

 

At the moment, there is an article out on the internet that is going viral, entitled “Aborted babies are being incinerated to provide electricity in the United States“.

If true, this would be quite a problem, as I believe that the irreverent disposal of human remains (as is claimed here) is illegal in most of the US.

Further, I cannot find any facts to back up the assertion that this is (or was) being done. The story seems to originate with the above-mentioned blog posting.  There are a lot of references that it and other sources cite; however, when you try to trace the links – all of them lead back to the blog I’ve linked-to above.  I also noted that all of the online articles misspell “British Columbia” the Canadian province as “British Colombia” – Colombia is in South America.  So, they are all almost certainly relying on a single source, and doing “copy and paste republishing” without verifying the facts – very poor journalism, let alone ethics!

Another thing that  troubles me about this whole issue is the leaps in terminology that are being made – starting with “medical waste” then leaping to “fetal remains” and finally “aborted babies” – i.e., the words have become more incendiary; but I can find no facts to justify the changes in language.

Finally, the British Columbia Ministry of Health (which is the correct name, not “British Colombia Health Ministry”) has not responded to this claim at all (as of this posting), nor has any other government body within Canada, nor (as far as I can tell) any government body or hospital in the US.

So, whether this claim is true or not, there is nothing to back it up as of yet, and the many pro-life sites that are trumpeting this as a huge crime are employing language that is becoming more and more heated – even though there is nothing to substantiate anything that they are saying.

All I’m suggesting is that we learn the facts before we risk unjustly accusing someone, or make ourselves look silly by coming down so vehemently against a situation that more than likely bears no resemblance to the way it has been presented in the media (so far).

I will keep tabs on this issue, and will update this blog post as new information becomes available.

The Myth of Legislated Morality

Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In my ten or so years as a Project Manager and Software Developer at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, I was frequently involved in discussions with physicians about what limits to incorporate into system designs.

Software development, and any sort of engineering or design for that matter, focuses to a large extent on limits.  We often needed to address questions like:

  • How large a number does this data field need to be able to store?
  • How wide should this column be on this report?
  • How flexible does this screen’s functionality need to be?

At Mayo, the underlying attitude was always “Limit our options and flexibility as little as possible.”  This was because physicians are dealing with people’s lives.  They absolutely do not want anything getting in the way of their ability to provide the best possible care for their patients. Is our “Great Physician,” Jesus, any different?

People constantly come to Doctors with all sorts of symptoms and issues that were well outside of what is expected, and so the tools they use in caring for those patients cannot limit their ability to provide the care that is needed.  Since we cannot accurately predict what situations the future will hold, we must provide tools that “flex” well in unexpected situations, and that do not needlessly place restraints on what can be done.

This same logic applies when talking about moral issues in everyday life, things like abortion, or gay marriage, or adoption across cultural or ethnic boundaries.  In all of these situations, people are involved.  Therefore, each such situation has its own unique circumstances.  Each one involves difficult, sometimes painful choices and adjustments.  Like a physician’s care of a patient, all of these situations involve decisions that these people will have to live with for the rest of their lives.  They are not choices that are made lightly.  Further, they are not choices made in isolation: the choice that is made impacts not only the person making it, but others as well, whether that is an unborn infant, or a same-sex partner, or a child who needs a family.  Their choices also impact and involve the “community” of which they are a part – family, friends, co-workers, and so on.

Continue reading “The Myth of Legislated Morality”

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