I Am A Person

At break time at work, we usually tune into what has come to be known as The Daily Disaster on CNN.  Always seem to be some horrible thing going on.  The talking heads were going on about the War on Women or some such drivel, & the conversation steered around to the question of whether or not is was permissible to abort a child conceived in a rape.

Many engineers pride themselves on a hard-headed, pragmatic approach to things, so often they take a harsh view of things with little room for mercy.  I often just keep my mouth shut & pray.  This time, after the case was made, I spoke up & said something like, "Well, it's not the kid's fault is it?  I mean, do you think the woman wants to live with the guilt of killing her child on top of the horrible memory of being raped?"  They were a little taken back to hear me speak out like that.

I told them that I know someone who this actually happened to - she got pregnant as a result of a rape, & instead of "getting rid" of the child, she carried it to term & gave the baby up for adoption.  Talk about heroic virtue.  I am amazed by this young woman's courage & expression of love.  They didn't know what to say.  I think everyone assumes that the automatic choice for everyone in every case is abortion.

Well, things got weird then.  Someone said, "Well, don't you think there's something wrong with someone who would do something like that?  I mean, how could a normal person do something like that," meaning, I supposed, that the child should be killed because they had a deranged & sub-human male parent that made the child's worthiness to live suspect.  I said, "I don't really think that's the case.  Any person is capable of virtually any crime.  While there are people with mental problems who might be rapist, I believe it's more about the cumulative choices people make that lead them to take certain actions."  

Well, they didn't by this, but stuck by their "rotten DNA" defense.  I said, "Be careful with that, because then they'll be scrutinizing everyone to see whether or not they meet the criteria to live."  Finally, some nodding heads.  Still, I was creeped out by this exchange.  I realized walking back from break that what was being advocated was eugenics.  It was Nazism at its ideological finest - the desire to create a superior race by eliminating the unfit.

I'm honestly not very good at apologetics on the fly, so I realized after some reflection that this is where I should have gone: the argument that a raped woman (any woman?) should not keep her child is based simply on whether the child is wanted or not.  It takes an unimaginable amount of love to bear a child that you didn't ask for; one that came from a horrible, violent act.  Without trivializing this for women - I mean, obviously, how could I possibly know - if we accept as a society that some human life is disposable because it is inconvenient or unwanted, then we open a Pandora's box of horror that we normally only find in Sci Fi novels.  

Implied in my ramblings was the fact that the unborn child is a human person.  I mean, it either is or it isn't.  If it is, then it must be protected by all laws, rights, & privileges that you & I enjoy.  If not, well, then there's little to separate a born child from unborn child other than location & desirability.  Either could be killed for any reason. The burden of proof of not-personhood certainly rests on the opposition.  It is clearly human life at an early stage - it's not going to become a phone booth or an ostrich - it is clearly human life.  From there, an unassailable case has to be made this nascent human life is not a person; & I simply don't think that can be done.

It also suggests the question, How much can you love? & it's couplet, How much are you willing to sacrifice?  Only in God can the answer that leads to true joy & fullness of life be found.  The current pro-abort mindset is the opposite: How will you fulfill what you want to do if you have this parasite in you?  How will you live a life of selfishness, inversion, & detachment from relationship & obligation?  How will be able to chase the dream we've laid out for you on nearly every womans' magazine cover you've seen your entire life?

I sense the tide is turning.  Science has revealed to the world how amazing developing human life is.  I think young people see the damage a culture of abortion has caused.  Many have taken the brunt of the blast in broken families, abuse, missing siblings, & a seeming lack of purpose.  They want more.  They are far more open to the Pro-Life message, despite the other challenges of their generation.  I have great hope that life will win.  See you at the March for Life.