Because it is "groping in the dark" as you put it, and because there are so many opinions on this and we can't all agree, why not leave the choice to the persons involved? Why do strangers get to decide the course of my life simply because I have sex that results in a pregnancy? Why do they get to impose an arbitrary morality? Reducing t…
Because it is "groping in the dark" as you put it, and because there are so many opinions on this and we can't all agree, why not leave the choice to the persons involved? Why do strangers get to decide the course of my life simply because I have sex that results in a pregnancy? Why do they get to impose an arbitrary morality? Reducing the rights of women simply because they can bear children is just patently unfair. It reduces us to our biological essentials. I am not a walking womb. I am a human being and I deserve the same rights and freedoms as men (I know you agree on this).
The saddest part of this whole thing is that most of those who posture on the side of pro-life, don't truly care about the kids being born. They only care in the abstract. As Thomas Sowell says - abstract people in an abstract world. Most unwanted children end up in the foster care system, dead, or have to survive some greater or lesser level of abuse. Some are adopted for better or worse. Not all adoptions are idyllic. I was an unwanted child and I was abused by bio, foster, and adoptive parents. I know what it is to be that child that falls between the cracks and who is kicked around because no one truly wants to bear the weight of raising you and your very existence is inconvenient. My life has been hell for the most part. No one seems to care about the quality of life for the children born into the world. Wild animals in nature have more care and rationality on dealing with the survival of progeny in limited-resource environments.
I'll be damned if I call my life sacred. It's not. It never was and it never will be. It would have been better for all concerned had I never been born. I am here and am making the best of it. But I know full well the weight of not being wanted and what it does to your life. I would not wish this journey on my worst enemy. Just being alive is not enough. If there is no love, but only duty, life is a desert.
This is an excellent post and comes from an unexpected angle. All this gush about the awesome sacredness of life ignores the Quiet Desperation aspect. Forty-odd thousand American commit suicide every year, a level of misery severe enough to end one's own life for every one of these there are probably millions whose lives are at best a matter of coping.
I had a friend in Seattle who had grown up in an orphanage and never adopted. He was a mess. I know him on Facebook now and he's still a mess.
I just want to acknowledge the courage of your candor.
"Because it is "groping in the dark" as you put it, and because there are so many opinions on this and we can't all agree, why not leave the choice to the persons involved? Why do strangers get to decide the course of my life simply because I have sex that results in a pregnancy?"
This is a fabulous question that, to be honest, I'm not sure I have an answer for. I'm struggling to figure out if this is the same as the many other laws that decide the course of our lives, but I feel like it is and it isn't.
The closest comparison I can think is age of consent laws. Nobody knows when a child becomes an adult. There's no clear before and after. In fact, for some, it's undoubtedly *after* they're legal and adult. But we treat children differently under the law in ways that both advantage them and restrict them. We don't allow them to decide for themselves, even though it's their life that's affected.
Women don't need to be protected in the same way as children, of course. But wouldn't you agree that there's a point where the baby does? Where it's a real human being who will bleed if you prick it and laugh if you tickle it and die if you poison it. And that this point comes *before* it's out of the mother's stomach.
Abortion laws are about that very healthy instinct society has to protect children. That instinct should have as little impact on women as possible. But the facts of biology mean it's very difficult for it to have none at all.
Because it is "groping in the dark" as you put it, and because there are so many opinions on this and we can't all agree, why not leave the choice to the persons involved? Why do strangers get to decide the course of my life simply because I have sex that results in a pregnancy? Why do they get to impose an arbitrary morality? Reducing the rights of women simply because they can bear children is just patently unfair. It reduces us to our biological essentials. I am not a walking womb. I am a human being and I deserve the same rights and freedoms as men (I know you agree on this).
The saddest part of this whole thing is that most of those who posture on the side of pro-life, don't truly care about the kids being born. They only care in the abstract. As Thomas Sowell says - abstract people in an abstract world. Most unwanted children end up in the foster care system, dead, or have to survive some greater or lesser level of abuse. Some are adopted for better or worse. Not all adoptions are idyllic. I was an unwanted child and I was abused by bio, foster, and adoptive parents. I know what it is to be that child that falls between the cracks and who is kicked around because no one truly wants to bear the weight of raising you and your very existence is inconvenient. My life has been hell for the most part. No one seems to care about the quality of life for the children born into the world. Wild animals in nature have more care and rationality on dealing with the survival of progeny in limited-resource environments.
I'll be damned if I call my life sacred. It's not. It never was and it never will be. It would have been better for all concerned had I never been born. I am here and am making the best of it. But I know full well the weight of not being wanted and what it does to your life. I would not wish this journey on my worst enemy. Just being alive is not enough. If there is no love, but only duty, life is a desert.
This is an excellent post and comes from an unexpected angle. All this gush about the awesome sacredness of life ignores the Quiet Desperation aspect. Forty-odd thousand American commit suicide every year, a level of misery severe enough to end one's own life for every one of these there are probably millions whose lives are at best a matter of coping.
I had a friend in Seattle who had grown up in an orphanage and never adopted. He was a mess. I know him on Facebook now and he's still a mess.
I just want to acknowledge the courage of your candor.
"Because it is "groping in the dark" as you put it, and because there are so many opinions on this and we can't all agree, why not leave the choice to the persons involved? Why do strangers get to decide the course of my life simply because I have sex that results in a pregnancy?"
This is a fabulous question that, to be honest, I'm not sure I have an answer for. I'm struggling to figure out if this is the same as the many other laws that decide the course of our lives, but I feel like it is and it isn't.
The closest comparison I can think is age of consent laws. Nobody knows when a child becomes an adult. There's no clear before and after. In fact, for some, it's undoubtedly *after* they're legal and adult. But we treat children differently under the law in ways that both advantage them and restrict them. We don't allow them to decide for themselves, even though it's their life that's affected.
Women don't need to be protected in the same way as children, of course. But wouldn't you agree that there's a point where the baby does? Where it's a real human being who will bleed if you prick it and laugh if you tickle it and die if you poison it. And that this point comes *before* it's out of the mother's stomach.
Abortion laws are about that very healthy instinct society has to protect children. That instinct should have as little impact on women as possible. But the facts of biology mean it's very difficult for it to have none at all.