I am so damn sick of this.
July 5th, 2006I want to live in a world where abortion is just another medical procedure, about as morally-charged as treating a cold or getting your wisdom teeth removed.
Does a tumor have a right to life? It’s the same thing. It’s a clump of cells that siphons off your body’s resources so it can grow. Sure, sometimes a fetus is a wanted parasite, welcomed, even, and I have no issue with that. That’s great. But even when it’s wanted it can take a toll. The body sees a baby as a foreign invader and does everything it can to try to kill it off. Plenty of fertilized eggs don’t even implant. (If we take conception as the moment life begins it means lots of sexually active women have a miscarriage without even realizing it.) A tumor is alive. It has human DNA, even.
The fact is, especially early-on, it’s something that happens all the time, purposely or no. And the baby’s not really a living, thinking thing in anything other than the strictest sense — a glob of cells the size of a pencil eraser. Can you tell me removing an unwanted embryo at that stage is comparable to murder? (As an aside, I think that comparison really minimizes the gravity of murder. A person who has lived years of life is different from something that’s existed for a few weeks or months and hasn’t even experienced anything yet.) It’s not a big deal at this stage. I really believe this.
This is not a “callous” attitude and it’s not disrespect for life. I have an immense respect for all life, which is why I’m anti-war and against the death penalty and try to buy cruelty-free meat and won’t kill a freaking mosquito if I don’t have to, for god’s sake. I have respect for the life of the woman carrying the fetus. I have respect for that woman’s autonomy. And that is why I say it’s not a big deal. People kill bugs all the time and I wish they wouldn’t and it’s something I don’t do, but it’s not a big deal so I don’t try to pass legislation telling them that killing living things just because they’re “pests” is wrong and they can’t do it. Because if you don’t swat that fly, a spider will eat it or something anyway. Everything dies. Small lives are not worth more than large lives, and the converse, respectively. All life is worth immeasurably much. But it’s also not the end of the world when something dies, either, though it can feel like it.
Death is not the worst thing that can happen. Our fear of our own mortality is what makes us feel it is. If we accept that all things die, that we will die, one more death upon the billions this world is built on doesn’t seem so awful. Torture concerns me. Disregard for human rights concerns me. Destruction of the environment concerns me. Injustice concerns me. Rape concerns me. Abuse concerns me. Oppression concerns me. Genocide and murder concern me.
Against those things? A woman deciding she doesn’t want to dedicate the rest of her life to caring for another creature doesn’t really phase me. Some people can’t or don’t want to take care of pets. I respect that decision and encourage them not to purchase one. Having a child is a much heavier and deeper responsibility with lasting repercussions that impact generations of lives. I strongly encourage some people not to have kids, ever.
Mind you, I know it’s a slippery slope, and that’s why I’m not placing conditions. I don’t think one can be pro-choice with conditions or caveats. As long as the thing is still in a woman’s body, I support her right to do whatever the hell she wants with it. I don’t care how far along she is. There are circumstances that sometimes prevent a woman from getting an abortion until it’s too late, until after the point when it’s no longer legal, when their intention was never to carry it to term. I think these women should not be punished due to factors which prevented them from aborting sooner. Some people will cut off at a certain date, when they think abortion is no longer permissible, and I think this is usually arbitrary. It’s often based on exactly when that particular person thinks an embryo is human enough for its death to qualify as murder.
I think an embryo’s always human. (Now, when it becomes a person, that’s debatable.) To deny that would be silly. And abortion is always killing a living thing, but I don’t see why that’s a huge issue given the undeniable realities of physical existence — living things always die. (We cannot live without killing. Even vegans eat plants. Even if we could invent a machine to synthesize food that’s never been alive, chances are it would have an environmental impact. There’s no way around this. As far as I’m concerned, there doesn’t need to be. Curing any disease is killing something, usually millions of microscopic somethings.) Life isn’t perfect and it’s not lasting and it’s really not as huge a deal as people make it out to be. Life at all costs is a short-sighted philosophy that ignores, I think, the impact of what’s really important: quality of life.
Living life by a rigid standard of ethics, denying relativism and pragmatism entirely…it may survive some philosopher’s purely logical standard of what is absolutely morally acceptable, but what is right is not always what is Absolutely Good. Nothing can ever be perfect. Utilitarianism isn’t any better a standard than this, either, and neither is hedonism, so I’m not endorsing either. I just think what is right depends. It depends on the situation, the circumstance, the people.
All we can do is what causes the least suffering, if in fact such a thing is feasible or practical. If not, we’re not perfect and we’re not all-powerful. We just are. We’re animals with an inflated sense of self-worth and our impact on the universe around us. If a God existed, would ze care, really, what we do and do not do? Does ze care about morals and ethics, if ze is really all-knowing, unconditionally loving, all-powerful? I doubt it. Everything can be forgiven. Better yet, mistakes in an absolute moral sense don’t need to be forgiven. There’s nothing, in a great cosmic sense, wrong with them.
We participate in and condone killing every day and it’s not in the sense of cold-blooded murder, it just is. Why is this any different? There is no reason it should be different that doesn’t buy into the idea that humans are inherently superior to animals, plants, bacteria. And I honestly don’t think we are. This attitude of mine is only a disregard for life if you accept that smaller lives don’t matter. As I don’t…what’s the problem? Where is the moral dilemma?
As for my unconditional support of choice, don’t give me that I-support-abortion-but-not-as-birth-control bullshit. What else is it? It’s a form of birth control. Did you mean to say “in place of contraception”? And if so, why? What about women who can’t take hormonal birth control (my sisters, my mother, me)? What about women who can’t afford it (again, were I in a position to be having penis-in-vagina sex, probably me)? What’s the litmus test here to see if a woman is deserving? If she used multiple forms of birth control perfectly and they all failed? It’s okay then? Is it only okay once? If birth control fails twice in ten years is that okay?
You can’t know another’s circumstances. Don’t judge. It’s not up to you to decide. The choice, in all likelihood, has absolutely nothing to do with you. Keep your nose out of it.
And if it is because a woman just didn’t take precautions…just because she doesn’t want a child, even if she could afford to care for it… So? Why is a woman obligated to become a mother? Why is anybody who does not want a child for any reason obligated to have one? Aren’t there enough people in the world? Do we need more? Why is this an issue, other than as a form of control over women’s bodies, women’s lives?
I want to live in a world where a woman’s decision to have an abortion is nobody’s business. I want to live in a world where anti-choice attitudes are not the accepted norm and are instead a radical fringe philosophy that normal people find horrifying. I want to live in a world where abortion is cheap, easy to access, and available whenever a woman needs one.
That is not the world we live in now, no matter what the anti-choice propaganda says.
I’m not in a good mood, and I’m just musing and venting. I do not want to debate this, and this post is not an invitation to debate. Thank you.
July 5th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
Earlbeke,
I’ve got to say that’s one of the most reasonable explanations of a pro-abortion position that I’ve seen. I don’t agree with you on several accounts, mind you. But I appreciate your viewpoint more having read this.
I don’t expect you to post this comment as I am many things that you appear to be pretty much against: male, rather conservative, follower of Jesus, pro-life, closer to four decades old, blah, blah, blah. I understand you not wanting to post it. It’s OK with me either way.
But it appears we have more in common that I would have thought. I too consider myself spiritual but not religious. And I am science loving, logic driven, out there and an idealist. Although you seem to be more well read than I and my preference is rock music.
I found your blog when I searched “practical life philosophy” in Google Blogs (because any life philosophy which can’t be practically applied is useless blather).
I really don’t want to debate the abortion issue as folks tend to get too emotional about it, which reduces the ability to talk about it rationally.
However I do want to point out that there is one thing that differentiates a fetus from a cancerous tumor or a fly. That thing is its potential. A tumor or a bug does not posses the potential to grow into a person. Yet before it is aborted, a fetus still has the potential to grow into someone who might find a cure for that cancerous tumor or discover a way to reduce disease carrying flies in a way that actually benefits the environment instead of harming it with pesticides.
After it’s aborted, then that dead fetus is much more like your analogy, and without potential. But then it’s no longer living either.
Not an attempt at an argument. Just something for you to think about. Never stop thinking!
Thanks for bothering to listen.
Chris
July 5th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
Well, you were very respectful so I’m letting your comment through.
I do think it’s definitely a morally problematic issue, but there are a lot of issues which are morally problematic which I don’t think have easy answers, either. I mean, like I said, just eating and surviving is problematic in a way. It bothers me a lot that so much of life continuing seems to be inescapably dependant on other life’s decay. I really have thought hard about it, and for me it doesn’t seem like abortion is so much different from so many other processes necessary to survival. Nature, unfortunately, is pretty much amoral. It’s not fair, but there you have it. You have to work with what’s there.
It’s just one of those situations where even if you think it’s wrong to have an abortion I don’t see how it’s any more right to try to legislate away other people’s choices… I don’t really understand people’s desire to have sex outside of committed relationships, for example, but I accept that that’s their prerogative, even if I think it’s kind of gross. I think it’s stupid not to wear a seatbelt but provided someone’s an adult (rather than a child just being neglected by a parent) I think that should be their decision. There a lot of other things people do that I think are pretty offensive on a moral level, and not choices I would make. I personally don’t ever want to have an abortion and would never have one unless I had to, for health or financial reasons (I think it’s wrong that some women are forced to abort/give up their kids for adoption solely based on a lack of financial resources, though, BTW), or whatever. But, well, I can only control myself.
As for the potential a person might have — that’s true, but we can’t tell the future. Not being able to know what potential ramifications of the decision isn’t really a good justification for disallowing people to make any other choice. I also think that any given breakthrough or discovery doesn’t tend to be dependent on one person alone, anyway. But, I mean, it comes down to how much weight you give that potential. A little bit of lost potential isn’t going to be the end of the universe, but it can be a big deal on an individual level. *shrug* I don’t advocate looking only at the ultimate cosmic level of things because people still need to be held accountable for what they do, but I do think the big picture puts some things in perspective, whether it makes them better or not.
Hah, I agree. Which is why I think a lot of philosophy is pretty interesting to think about but in the end I’m left wondering…well, what was the point of that? I don’t know if it seems practical to other people, but I certainly apply what I think to my everyday life.
On that note, I’ve been thinking lately that I just want to write more about spirituality and such. Maybe I should if I feel up to it.
July 5th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
One thing that I note is absent from your writing on this topic (the title of your post notwithstanding) is rage. I find that refreshing. Like I said abortion is an emotionally charged subject and both sides mostly completely blow it by screaming from their emotions rather than giving their apponents the courtesy of permitting them to think for themselves.
I have not always been pro-life just as I have not always been a follower of Jesus.
But I have pretty much always been a bit of a champion for the underdogs along the way. I rarely got into a fight on my own behalf but rather would stand up to the bully who was harrasing someone else. I tended to befriend the ones rejected by the popular crowd.
It certainly doesn’t make me right, but one of the reasons I take the pro-life position is because the fetus is the defenseless one in the equation. Of all the parties involved (mother, father - regardless of wether he’s still present or not he had some level of involvment, doctors, nurses, grandparents, future siblings, etc.) the fetus is the only one unable to speak for or in anyway represent itself. Its kind of the ultimate underdog.
And I pretty much always pull for the underdog.
I’d encourage you to explore spirituality more. Me, I always had a desire to find what was true and I believe I finally met Truth in the person of Jesus Christ. And like you I tend to be passionate about what I believe.
I’m not here to preach at you. (I can do enough of that over on my own blog
) You are welcome to check it out if you like. That is entirely your call. I promise to be as respectful of your comments as you were of mine.
I just wanted to thank you for your reasoned position and encourage you to keep thinking through the implications of your positions. I wish you all the best.
Enjoy!
August 23rd, 2006 at 10:43 pm
I have read a lot of arguments about abortion. A lot. I took ethics classes in university and I wrote essays and I read way too many philosophy textbooks written mainly by deceased white heterosexual men. But yours is by far the most interesting, the most provocative, the most courageous, and in some ways the most puzzling point of view I have ever come across. I can’t even decide whether or not I agree with it. But it really made me think, so thank you. I appreciate anything that makes me think this much.
August 30th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Hey earlebeck,
I don’t know if you’re checking the blog. But, see, whenever my little mini-feed reader crashes, it boots up again and feeds me this and a couple earlier post. I’ve been meaning every time to come here and write to ask where you are and how you’re doing. Well, I finally get off my lazy butt today and ask, “Where are you and how are you doing?”
Not, of course, to pressure you if life has gotten in the way. Just to say, hey, because you were one of my weekly reads and every so often I think about something you’ve written and wonder where you are.
You can write me offblog at my email address if you have time.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:22 am
i was actually searching for some data to help me with my assigment on alternate sexuality and somehow the link to ur blog popped up!…n i have to admit…i was hooked…i have always been pro womens rights and pro-abortion but my reasons have always been vague and somehow disconnected…i really like the way your mind works and how its able to put a very clear reasoned picture accross….theres nothing else i would like to add except perhaps that we really need more people who think like you…thank you 4 helping me more than u can imagine…u have cleared a lot of my doubts and now i honestly do feel a lot more confident about why i believe in this…
January 18th, 2008 at 1:26 am
I really enjoyed your post (thanks to StubleUpon.com) - very well-put! As a feminist myself, and a pro-choicer, I whole-heartedly agree with all the points you discussed. I volunteer between four and ten hours per week at The Allentown Women’s Center in northeastern PA, a women’s reproductive health clinic, and deal with these issues on a daily basis. Between frantic patients and frightening anti-choice protestors, I’ve heard nearly every argument for and against free access to abortions.
The “potential of life” idea that was mentioned in a previous comment was always on that particularly irked me. As you said, we cannot see the future, and every time I hear “[[gasp]] ABORTION?! You could be assisting in the MURDER of the person who cures cancer!” I politely remind the speaker that 1) If we cured cancer tomorrow, and the disease was no more, within five years the population would spike so dramatically that famine, violence, overcrowding, and other forms of disease would kill at a more rapid rate than cancer ever could (this, of course, is to be taken with a large grain of salt) and 2) The “potential” you care so much about could also end up another Hitler.
The “defenseless fetus” argument is, in my opinion, completely irrelevant. Of course it’s defenseless! It’s a mass of cells! If society deemed the fetus deserving of a say in matters, women would be getting arrested left and right for child abuse for drinking coffee, taking a drag from a cigarette, or lifting a heavy object during pregnancy. I hope I don’t sound TOO callous, but the fact is: the woman’s wishes trump the non-existent desires of the fetus. And all that aside, let’s be serious… if you could “ask the embryo”, do you think it would say, “Sure, death sounds cool”? No. If we all took sides with the fetus, women would be walking, talking incubators.
I’m no incubator.