As you know, I support listening to opposing viewpoints. I offer the following discussion as part of that ethic.
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I strongly believe that an embryo does not have more rights than a women, and that an embryo is not an independent life at that point [14 weeks pregnant].” - Susan Wicklund
On today’s show Diane Rehm interviewed a doctor that performs abortions on her show. The doctor’s point of view was that abortions would be performed no matter what–whether the procedure was legal or illegal. As an example, she told the story of her grandmother (a non-medical person) killing a friend while trying to perform an abortion more than fifty years ago.
She states that if women cannot decide when to bear children, then she no longer has control over her own education, her financial situation, emotional and physical health. She believes that pro-life advocates want to force all Americans to have sex only to procreate and that having sex out of wedlock should not be shameful.
Halfway though the show, Diane talked to Lori Campbell who wrote an article for Vogue magazine about her own partial birth abortion. The article was called “Private Lives” and is on page 66 of the January 2008 volume. The subtitle is “When Lori Campbell’s second pregnancy
developed complications, she was faced with a painful decision. But she was thankful it was hers to make.”
The author recounts how her water broke at 22 weeks pregnant. She and her husband were devastated when the doctors told them there wasn’t much chance for the baby to survive if it were born at this point. They insisted the best course of action for her would be to terminate the pregnancy.
After thinking it over, while Mrs. Campbell said she wished for the child to live, she felt the most “humane” thing to do was to take the option of terminating the pregnancy via partial-birth abortion, since the chance of the child living was slim. She decides to make the decision to abort the child. She justifies her decision by saying she is saving the baby from needless suffering if it is only going to die anyway.
What surprised me was in the interview on the show, she has no problem using the word “child.” I have always thought for most of my life that abortion was framed from perspective on whether you thought that a fetus has a life and soul. I’m assuming by her phrasing that Mrs. Campbell does believe that her child had a life. She believed that euthanizing her child was the most humane thing to do. She believed that it was the path of least suffering for her unborn child and her and her family.
When did the path of least suffering begin to justify euthanasia?
Listen on the Diane Rehm Show to an interview with Susan Wicklund