Abortion as a modern form of child sacrifice
Datechguy and Stacy both have blog posts conflating the practice of child sacrifice with abortion.
I made the following comment on Stacy’s blog:
I’ve often thought of abortion in terms of human sacrifice to the modern god of convenience.
In response to this Rome said:
I do not understand how abortion could be considered a sacrifice. It’s just killing. It’s not an offering to appease anything. It’s not the act of giving up for a greater good. It’s shedding a burden.
To which I said:
Rome said: “It’s just killing.”
Oh that’s OK then….
To which Rome responded:
Stuart,
Yes, it is.
I spoke to someone before posting this and was told that abortion is much more nuanced than I would imagine.
Is it?
October 14th, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Well, as I said the other week:
‘I’m not sure there’s any sense in saying — as we would surely do — that it was violent of, say, the ancient Spartans to expose babies who looked frail or deformed, or of the wealthy Carthaginians to kill their babies — assuming they really did so — in the belief that doing so would make their lives better, but that it’s not violent of us to kill our babies before they can see daylight, just because they’re weak or inconvenient or girls.’
We kill them to make our lives better, or to stop them getting worse.
October 15th, 2011 at 10:39 am
Is it more nuanced? Well many of us would say that early term abortion is not the same at all as killing a fully independently viable person.
At the heart of ths is surely whether you think that there is a God given soul separate from the body, which comes into existence at the point of conception. I don’t, and this informs my view on early term abortion.
My view is utilitarian. That developing being inside the womb is not yet aware of its own existence, and has no concept of self, or loss, or pain. Conversely, giving birth affects not just the mother but potentially advrsely affects many other people, either directly or indirectly. One could even think of continuing with the pregnancy in clearly adverse circumstances as an act of selfishness, indifferent to the sometimes shattering effect on relatives, loved ones, and potentially on wider society.
I realise that this may not be a popular view on a religious blog, and it’s a controversial view to defend in such an environment, but I think it is justifiable if one does not believe in life being given by God, and solely within His gift to grant or deny.
October 15th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
My view is generally ‘pro-life’ but the ethics of abortion is complex. In some circumstances abortion may be an act of giving up for a greater good – for example when continuing the pregnancy would result in the mother’s death.
October 16th, 2011 at 11:53 am
I tend not to read blogs or articles which contain debates on the abortion issue. I find it deeply troubling having to read the so-called reasons given to abort a child. Some don’t even bother, they just come right out and say it… I just don’t want one now, I’m getting rid!
I am 56 and at no stage in my life did I ever think abortion was justified. I have even seen abortions and aborted babies. It is truly horrific and barbaric. What is more chilling is the matter of fact way the doctors and nurses carry them out. There is no sense of taking life – none at all!
October 17th, 2011 at 11:46 am
@Simian: even accepting your starting point, you rest on a false premis: that we can know the future. In fact we can’t and many an unwanted pregnancy has resulted in a wanted child. We cannot know that a particular birth will result in distress for anyone, and to kill the unborn child because we fear it might is not utilitarian but fear-driven. My nephew was conceived in a one-night stand, when my sister was in a bad way with drugs. Had she aborted him, as the doctors thought she should, she may well not have turned her life around. But she didn’t abort and she did turn her life around. But nobody could know that it was going to go that way: any more than they could know (as the doctors thought they did) that it would go the other… And I do not think killing my nephew would have been a good idea in either case. It is also worthy of note – and I think related to my point about being fear-friven -that many women regret abortions; scarcely any regret not having had one.
October 17th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Ben
I do not think we can know the future, and if I gave the impression I thought we could it was not my intention.
Following your logic we should never do anything which might change the future, just in case we might later regret it. This is surely a totally unrealistic idea.
And I would suggest that your last point is wishful thinking. There is no really credible evidence to support this claim, though it is often repeated by those who wish to promote a ‘pro-life’ position, and has become ‘perceived wisdom’.
Nothing is ever perfect. Before the legalisation of abortion in 1967, many women were dying each year from botched back street abortions in the UK, and very many more permanently scarred both physically and mentally by their experiences, which they resorted to out of absolute desperation. Is that a better state of affairs?