Ethical Issues On Abortion

Ethical issues in the field of biology continually cause the people of the world to draw battle lines. While I so often sit on the sidelines, ignoring so many of the issues that divide us as a nation and a people, Abortion is not one of those issues. Abortion is something that not only hits close to home, but holds personal significance in my life. My mother, being pregnant with her fourth child at the age of 41, was told by doctors that there was a high likelihood of her infant son being born with down syndrome. Given the higher than normal chances of her child suffering from a disability, she was informed that abortion was an option that she should begin to consider as the due date drew nearer. Being a maternity nurse for over 15 years,

Again and again, we are reminded of how God knew us and sculpted us within the womb. In the book of Jeremiah, it states, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." In Psalms, it reiterates the present and active role God plays within the womb, and in Exodus, the killing or causing of harm to a child still in the womb, was punishable by death. Even aside from the Bible, it is basic instinct to protect and defend life, not to abruptly destroy it. So why do we as humans now go into battle for the right to end a life and silence a being that cannot defend or speak for itself, before even taking its first breath? How can a mother sentence the life growing inside her to death, and how could a father sit idly by? Because once we deny the gift of life, and treat it as a curse, nothing holds value any longer, not even the life of our own

If the life of a unborn child is not important, what is the life worth of the elderly, or the severally handicapped. We deem the worthiness of life on what that life can contribute to our cause, what that life can gain and achieve for us. We put our hope, not in the preciousness of life, but instead stamp each life with a price tag and label, clearly stating its assumed value and what must be done to maintain it. Life, what should be a gift, an opportunity to grow, give, love, and help each other, has turned into a game of success and above all convenience. We end life simply, and emotionlessly. Ridding ourselves of the disabled, the broken, and the unwanted, purely because we see them as an inconvenience instead of an opportunity, a burden instead of an inspiration, and a hassle to be ridded of rather than a blessing to be cherished. Well over one million abortions take place in the United States annually. With only 12 percent of these abortions being spontaneous or because of health complications, the other 82 percent are reported to be because of an inconvenience a child would be to one or both of the