a question of life and death — not situational ethics

January 24, 2009 in Uncategorized

One fundamental presumption the self-styled “pro-choice” supporters make is that advantage of circumstances bequeaths people (women, doctors, voters) with the right to take advantage of those circumstances and usurp moral authority.

Asking such situational ethics questions as, “What if she was raped and got pregnant with a child she never wanted?” is, first of all, a cop-out. Statistically, pregnancy only occurs in 5 percent of rape cases involving women of childbearing age. Of that 5 percent, only half of them ever sought an abortion. (Check me, with figures from the Justice Department.)

Aside from this fact, asking such a question also presumes a false dilemma for the mother: keep the child forever, or kill it for good. It assumes there is no other choice, such as adoption.

Finally, this loaded question presumes that the presence of those circumstances would and does somehow change the hierarchy of authority over such minor moral issues as life and death. The question presumes there are no absolutes — that, given just the right conditions, all of a sudden taking an innocent life is no longer wrong, it is merely a matter of relativity.

Relativity to what? I ask you rhetorically.

We’re not talking Einstein, here.

To ask such a thing is to presume that the value of another human’s life, when it is in our power to take it from him or her, is relative only to our own selfish desires or what we perceive are our “needs.”

It is the same mentality that leads to corporate CEOs taking money from rich clients, simply because they have the clever capabilities and resources to do so. It is the same as justifying the theft of food or property because of destitution. And such actions, for whatever reasons, are always wrong, because in all cases there are acceptable moral alternatives.

Yes, I am pro-choice, but not in the way many use the term. I’m all for choosing to do the right thing by my fellow human beings because I try to realize anew every day the weight of glory they carry as transient beings with eternal souls.

I choose not to disrespect their humanity simply because I have the physical, mental or circumstantial advantage over them. “Even the least of these…”