On abortion
I’m doing my first real editing with Vi, which is a different experience to say the least. I still need a lot of practice, so I’m not quite as fast were I still using TextPad, but I fully expect to get much faster in time.
My spare time has basically been filled reading everything I can on Linux, Programming, and Networking. I still haven’t really gotten started with all of my various projects, because I’ve been putting all my time developing the groundwork. Hopefully I’ll get some real work done in the near future.
My rant for the day is related to a rather touchy subject: abortion.
Most of the time, I describe myself as personally Pro-Life, but politically Pro-Choice. Basically, if I were ever to find myself in a situation where I had to help make a decision on abortion, I would almost invariably choose not to. The only time I might be swayed would be in one of two situations: a) if having the baby would put the mother in dire peril for her life, I would contemplate it, and b) if it could be determined that the baby had a painful, terminal, or inoperable disease. Partly, my stance mimics my personal views on when death may be preferable to life. I’m not sure I’d want to continue living if my functionality were severely impaired. My views may also be tainted by the fact that I’ve had a fairly close brush with death, and that I really don’t fear it, but rather have come to accept it as a natural part of life.
My own views out of the way, I can carry on with my rant. I’ve had numerous discussions on the subject with both adamant Pro-Choice and Pro-Life adherents. In general, their arguments and beliefs are well thought out, and often have a definite intellectual appeal. However, the hardest thing I have trouble understanding is how they can make such definitive statements as to what is and is not legal. For example, most Pro-Choice advocates will defend the right of the mother to abort her child up to a specific deadline, possibly up to the point of giving birth. Likewise, most Pro-lifers will state that it is murder to abort any fetus, perhaps even to the point of outlawing forms of birth control. My difficulty lies in establishing such an arbitrary cutoff point. How can I say when a baby first becomes self-aware, or when to use our scientific knowledge to interfere with the processes of nature? Maybe I’m not so good with absolutism, because I feel that there are circumstances for everything. I can’t say with certainty that a particular cutoff point will work in all cases, because there are simply cases which I cannot foresee, which will inevitably color the decision to be made.
I also run into other men who take great issue with the fact that they have essentially no say in the disposition of their potential children. While I can understand the feelings of impotence, my own personal belief is that you should never enter into sexual relations with someone who you feel may not agree with your views in such a matter. Actually, I tend to believe that sex should be strictly reserved for situations between two consenting adults, who have appropriately weighed the potential consequences of their actions.
Still, as I cannot in good conscience force my beliefs, opinions, and standards on society at large, and because there will always be people who do not choose such standards on their own, we are left with a simple choice of outlawing abortion, and forcing mothers into the untenable position of having back-alley abortions, or leaving laws the way they are, and forcing them to seek their own conscience and belief system for an answer.