Abortion: the Mother's Human Rights and the Premature Infant's Rights--How to Resolve this Moral Connundrum

Live Action: 2nd Trimester Surgical Abortion Dilation and Evacuation (D & E) from Τράπεζα Ἰδεῶν on Vimeo.

1. A mother's right as a woman shows that she, and she only ought to be the one to decide when faced with difficult, even tragic pregnancies in consultation with her husband and her doctor.

ALL politicians ought to stay out! Both those of the right and the left who treat the mother and preborn infant impersonally without considering the very real tragic situations.

Having said, that,the preborn infant, though connected to his/her mother before birth is also a human with rights and inherent worth.

2. Regardless of one's philosophical views, scientifically, at human conception what is conceived is a human life, which soon becomes an embryo, "a separate body and brain.

This embryo unless it fails (miscarriage) or it is killed (abortion) eventually becomes a fetus--M,W. Dictionary--"a developing human from usually two months after conception to birth" and then at 9 months is delivered and separated from his/her mother.

Ultrasounds, especially video ones show that in late development, the unborn fetus is exactly the same as a born infant. Probably, this is one reason that some states treat the murder of a woman and her fetus as 2 murders.

3. According to the Journal of the AMA, the infant can feel pain by the 23rd week. Premature births usually survive at about the 24th week.

Based upon that, it would seem from a scientific view, that then those in the womb at the 23rd week are basically the same as a birthed infant with inherne worth and human rights.

4. The difficulty, of course, comes because the fetus is still attached to his/her mother, and so, the mother needs to be the deciding one since the infant is still in her womb. When there is a tragedly, the mother is usually chosen for life over the premature infant.

Let me repeat, all political leaders of the right and left ought to stay out of tragedy.

5. Conclusion: "... all thinking people recognise a painful conflict of rights and interest in this question". Christopher Hitchens

In an interview, Hitchens also said that while he wasn't in favor of abortion, he wouldn't go beyond an effort of persuasion. "I myself was reluctant to do this even when my wife got pregnant. It came at the worst possible time. Neither of us wanted to have a kid. My wife was considering an abortion. I urged her not to get one, and ultimately, she decided not to, and didn’t. But I wouldn’t have, even if I could, gone beyond an effort to persuade her."


IF a mother--decides to abort or to birth her little one, that is her difficult moral decision to make, not strangers who don't even know her medical case.

Contrary to some ethical thinkers now, killing an infant after birth because he/she has Downs Syndrome or isn't wanted, is murder.

Infanticide is the worst of unjust human actions.

And the extreme of abortion-on-demand, where the premature infant is treated as "parasite" is very immoral and unjust.


In the Light of Human Rights,

Dan Wilcox

Still Missing Star and Cradle

Art by Banksy*

Bethlehem's still missing the star and cradle...the news is so tragic, more of the same--

like this poem concerning Christmas in Jerusalem and Bethlehem in 1974--


Missing Star and Cradle

Weird Christmas Eve 40 times past
With no holly, blinking red or green lights,

No 'holy' decorations, only the gaudy glare
Of cold Jerusalem's neon theater sign;

We watched Catch 22 with our kibbutz bunch
After being frisked for bombs at the entrance.

Years explode by while politicians yet pitch
Uncradled in the maze of their doctrinal hype;

The sacred cave's still dark and unstable,
For more unwise men, so starless, misrule.


Daniel Wilcox

First pub. in Danse Macabre
and in poetry collection,
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls





Palestinian attempts vehicular attack, is shot dead
Yoav Zitun 12.18.15, 17:19 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4741130,00.html

"A Palestinian attempted to commit a vehicular terror attack on Friday afternoon during rioting in Silwad in the West Bank. He was shot dead by soldiers. No other people were wounded."

Palestinians in car attacks--run down Israelis and kill them.

--




"Violent clashes broke out between dozens of Palestinian youths and Israeli forces near the Bilal mosque in Bethlehem on Friday. Israeli forces fired tear gas and live bullets at youths."

"The Palestinian activists threw petrol bombs and stones using slingshots to protest against ongoing occupation and escalating violence. Thirty-six people were injured."
https://www.rt.com/in-motion/323842-palestine-israeli-forces-clashes/

"Towering walls and militarized fences now encircle Bethlehem, turning the 4,000-year-old city into a virtual prison for its Palestinian Christian and Muslim citizens. Bethlehem has only three gates to the outside world, all tightly controlled by Israeli occupation forces."
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/bethlehem.html

"Israel has confiscated almost all the agricultural land in the area for illegal settlements, making it impossible for many Palestinian farmers to continue tending their land. Outside the town, the fields where shepherds once watched their flocks are being filled by Israeli housing blocs and roads barred to the descendants of those shepherds."

Israeli Army bulldozed this Palestinian's orchard

*BETHLEHEM, West Bank (RNS) The Palestinian Authority has asked municipalities to tone down their public Christmas celebrations this year amid escalating violence between Palestinians and Israelis."

"Hanna Amireh, who heads a government committee on churches in the West Bank, confirmed the Palestinian Authority is requesting “a certain decrease” in festivities following the deaths of dozens of Palestinians since mid-September. The majority of them were killed during clashes with Israeli forces or carrying out terrorist attacks, according to the Israeli government."

"Amireh said the government has asked the municipality of Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born and where official Palestinian celebrations of Christmas take place, not to set off holiday fireworks this year and to limit the festive lights and decorations that traditionally adorn the town to two main streets."
November 30, 2015
http://www.religionnews.com/2015/11/30/palestinian-authority-limits-christmas-celebrations-west-bank/
--

"Several stabbing attacks against Israelis occurred in and around Jerusalem Monday. In one instance, two Palestinian girls with scissors wounded a 70-year-old Palestinian man, thinking he was Israeli. One of the girls was killed by police.
The two girls, aged 14 and 16, stabbed the man with two pairs of scissors on Jaffa Road, a main thoroughfare between East and West Jerusalem. The attack caused wounds to the victim's head and back."

"The 16-year-old attacker was shot and killed by an Israeli police officer, while her 14-year-old accomplice was shot and wounded. Police said the two girls were related."
https://www.rt.com/news/323141-palestinian-israeli-stabbings-jerusalem/

*Art By Banksy
http://ifamericansknew.org/about_us/bethlehem06.html


Oh unholy night, where is the starred light?

Daniel Wilcox

Welcome Syrian Refugees Say 1,000 American Jewish Rabbis

1,000 American rabbis have responded to the anti-immigration outlook of too many Americans:

"In 1939, our country could not tell the difference between an actual enemy and the victims of an enemy...In 2015, let us not make the same mistake."

"We, Rabbis from across the country, call on our elected officials to exercise moral leadership for the protection of the US Refugee Admissions Program.

Since its founding, the United States has offered refuge and protection to the world’s most vulnerable. Time and time again, those refugees were Jews. Whether they were fleeing pogroms in Tzarist Russia, the horrors of the Holocaust or persecution in Soviet Russia or Iran, our relatives and friends found safety on these shores."

"We are therefore alarmed to see so many politicians declaring their opposition to welcoming refugees.

Last month’s heartbreaking attacks in Paris and Beirut are being cited as reasons to deny entry to people who are themselves victims of terror. And in those comments, we, as Jewish leaders, see one of the darker moments of our history repeating itself.

In 1939, the United States refused to let the SS St. Louis dock in our country, sending over 900 Jewish refugees back to Europe, where many died in concentration camps. That moment was a stain on the history of our country – a tragic decision made in a political climate of deep fear, suspicion and antisemitism.

The Washington Post released public opinion polling from the early 1940’s, showing that the majority of U.S. citizens did not want to welcome Jewish refugees to this country in those years.

In 1939, our country could not tell the difference between an actual enemy and the victims of an enemy. In 2015, let us not make the same mistake.

We therefore urge our elected officials to support refugee resettlement and to oppose any measures that would actually or effectively halt resettlement or prohibit or restrict funding for any groups of refugees."

from http://www.vox.com/world/2015/12/5/9851526/refugees-letter-rabbis



Become a ray of Light for refugees,

Daniel Wilcox