Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Abortion Debate


As I write this, Motion 312 is currently up for a vote in Parliament. Motion 312 is a member's bill put forward to reevaluate the definition of a human being. This is not about ending abortion, it's about opening the discussion on who is a human being. Yes, it will probably lead to a (much needed) discussion and possibly, legislation, surrounding abortion. The truth is that in 2012 it is possible for a woman to have an abortion up until birth, so long as there is still a part of the child inside the mother, a mother has the right to choose to abort.

I have been reading up on this and I found the most heart-wrenching quote in an article on Macleans.ca today:
"I think a person becomes a human being when they no longer rely solely on one other specific human in order to survive."

By that statement, the woman herself claims that a 6 month old child is not a human being, being that it is dependent on another human being for survival (I'm not making this up, she used that example in her comment).
To me, this is a very slippery, steep slope into the matter of human rights of all citizens. If we are to say that the definition of a human being is dependent on the individual's ability to survive on their own, to contribute to society or whatever indicator of "being" that people wish to use as a measuring stick, we would be wiping out much of our population, our elderly, those who are handicapped, children and youth.

To take that statement to the extreme, because that's what the commenter herself did, not I, let's assume that in order for a human being to exist they must no longer rely solely on another for survival - that means they need to have the capacity to have and keep a job, housing, ability to navigate the world, right?

Here are some stats on my family - I have a mom, two older brothers, a sister-in-law, a niece, a nephew, 3 aunts, 2 uncles, 2 cousins, 2 grandmas and 1 grandpa, including myself we have 17 people.
  • Neither my niece or nephew can work
  • There are members of my family who cannot, for one reason or another, live on their own and rely on the support of family
  • All my grandparents are above 80 and require some assistance (although my grandmas are pretty tough!)


If we were to also include those that have gone before, I had an aunt who was handicapped and a dad who died of brain cancer.

Are you really going to tell me that these members of my family, 1/3 of my family, are not human beings?

2 comments:

  1. that's so ridiculous! it doesn't even make any sense. my students are currently writing essays on rights&responsibilities. that word responsibilities is a huge, fundamental problem with trudeau's nice little charter. you cannot have a right without fulfilling a responsibility.

    also, the ARPA presentation nicely pointed out another logical fallicy of many feminists: he-hem.

    the reason slavery was allowable was because the slave-owners did not consider the slaves "human beings". the reason naziism destroyed many jews and others of minority was because they did not consider these people "human beings". the reason - get this! - the reason women were not allowed to vote OR HAVE MANY WOMEN'S RIGHTS was because they were not considered 'human beings'.

    so riddle me this: you like your rights, and you certainly like to exercise them to the extreme. you are grateful for the women (and men!) who fought for them, no? AND YET you deny them to the very smallest of children, who have not even been given a chance to speak up, speak out or even speak at all! all for the sake of your precious little rights. shame on you.

    doesn't it rather make sense that since others have fought for the rights you now enjoy, you should likewise fight for the rights of others?

    the whole debate is so perverse and illogical. it's emotionally charged - i get that. and women who have had or are considering abortions need help in many different forms. they also need compassion.

    but so do their children.

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  2. That's freedom of speech for you, people can say what they want, even if it's stupid and makes no sense; sadly some people use stupid statements like that to support their agenda:( Maybe it should be seen as hate speech!
    mom

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