But should we be accepting the idea of abortion as an acceptable form of birth control
I don't think that there are many people in North America who consider abortion an acceptable form of birth control, certainly not an acceptable primary form of birth control. I'd be surprised if ten percent thought so. I certainly don't think so. But I do find it an acceptable terciary method, when all else fails, if done early. I'm sure I will never be able to get my head around an embryo as figurehead for the sanctity of life. I think those who act reasonably responsibly ought to be spared the cost of a lightning strike. If you're not promiscuous, you use a reliable form of birth control, and pay enough attention to recognize your pregnancy early, you should not have to carry a child to term let alone raise it or pay for it's raising. I don't think it's fair or reasonable to punish such people for their "irresponsibility" when there's an alternative. I don't think that only the celibate are responsible. Humans are sexual creatures. They should not have to totally stiffle that to be considered responsible given the advancements in birth control technologies.
because of the diminution in the recognition of the sanctity of life
I don't see this diminution. The sanctity of life is alive and well. People can have somewhat different views on what it means in some circumstances. I personally find abhorrent the practice and the expectation that military and rescue workers risk their lives to retrieve bodies out of consideration for the families. To me that diminishes sanctity of life as much as a late term abortion does, but I don't hear of any movement to stop it. If anyone ever died to retrieve my carcass I'm sure I'd spin in my grave in guilt and horror. At least I would if I weren't an inanimate carcass.
First, because of the diminution in the recognition of the sanctity of life, which carries over to such areas as the death penalty (if it's okay to abort innocent pre-babies, it should be okay for society to "abort" really bad people) to euthanasia to lots of other more complex areas.
Well, at least you acknowledge that it's complex. <g> Seriously, I don't see abortion supporting either the death penalty or euthanasia. There is an euthanisia aspect to abortion in that sometimes the rationale for abortion is to avoid bringing a severely damaged baby into the world. The body miscarries all the time for that reason, often before a woman even realizes that she's pregnant. I can imagine a point in the future when medicine will advance to the point where science can cause that sloughing off of embryos to not occur. It's pretty silly for women of childbearing age to have to take a pill every day to avoid the spontaneous sloughing off of an embryo she doesn't even know about lest she violate the sanctity of life. At some point the legitimate concern over viable fetuses becomes just silly. I suggest that mourning a damaged embryo is well into the silly range. Just where that line is I do not know. Which is why we couldn't effectively legislate it even if we wanted to. Better, IMO, to do what Jewel says and put the right-to-life energy into adoption and into caring for those already born damaged or unwanted and worry about embryos when that's been taken care of. That's my idea of what sanctity of life is about. |
