I have deep feelings about abortion. You could say I don't like it.
In the mid 60's a film called Alfie was made staring Michael Caine. The film had quite an impact. Michael Caine became a star. He was very good in it. It almost seemed as if the film was about him. Of course he claimed it wasn't but he seemed to be speaking while winking one eye. The film followed the adventures of Alfie - if you could call them adventures. Alfie was an amoral, immoral, person who had no morals. He has relationships with many women. He two times everybody. He impregnates a girl who loves him and he abandons her and the baby. He impregnates a middle aged married woman and he arranges an abortion for her but doesn't pay for it himself. He takes up with a middle aged American woman but she deserts him for a younger man and he doesn't like it. He is an ego driven man who believes himself to be heroic. The film ends with a feeling of regret. His girlfriend marries an ineffectual looking man who she doesn't love and this man becomes the father of Alfies child. Alfie basically has nothing. He has lost his son. He only has himself to blame but of course he doesn't blame himself. It was very entertaining film and well worth seeing. After I saw the film I read the book.The book had much the same feeling as the film. It was Alfie explaining his view of the world. Always finding a way to justify his actions. It is an easy book to read. You virtually fly through it. It does have reflections on certain human conditions - amongst other things it has an incident when it gives an explanation of homosexual desire. Towards the end of the book there is a well written piece of writing that is shocking. It describes the abortion of the middle aged married woman that Alfie arranges. This was a backroom abortion and no doubt was an extremely true description of what actually happens. It shocks Alfie and shows that he does have a moral centre. It also shocked me - the reader - and made me think about what abortion really was. It had a profound effect on me. A passage in a popular novel caused me to think deeply and produced a change in me. Up to that time I don't think I had an opinion about abortion. After that I have always had an opinion. Of course I have kept it to myself. That is of course up til now. The book describes how Alfie arranges for a Doctor to perform the abortion and Alfie thinks it will be a clinical quick excercise. He will not be much involved. He is surprised to find that the Doctor makes him wait with the woman until she aborts the fetus. Alfie has to wait - the Doctor refuses to be there and will not wait. The Doctor has simply set up up the process to induce the abortion. Finally when its all over Alfie discovers that the aborted fetus is a perfectly formed infant. The perfectly formed infant sums up the crux of the moral issue that is abortion. There are many arguments in favour of abortion. The main one being that a woman should have control over her own body. A woman should be able to do anything she wants. Its her body. Why should her life be inconvenienced by an unwanted baby? Why should we be having any debate over just when does life begin? Why is it an issue when its just an unformed fetus? Surely all pregnancies affect a woman's health in one way or anothrer? Surely the woman's health should always be the paramount issue. Why should it not be her decision and only be her decision whether she has a baby or not. Abortions should be available to anyone. It should be every woman's right to have an abortion. In the past abortions were against the law. In the early 60's certain Police benefited from this and took bribes from abortion clinics. In the late 60's a Court ruling made it legal if it was judged that the woman's health was threatened. There were some Doctors who performed abortions more or less openly hoping to push the authorities into prosecuting them and make it a public issue. In a short while all abortions were seen to be covered by the court ruling specifying the health of the woman. Later legislation clearing up the law has made abortion more or less commonplace. Anecdotal evidence now indicates that all woman in unusual circumstances and all woman over a certain age are at least offered the opportunity to have an abortion or are openly advised to have an abortion. I think our society has the wrong attitude towards abortion. In simple terms - why do we think its OK? Is it because we have become so selfish in our attitudes that nothing is more important than our feelings? Is it because we do not believe we should be made to do something when we don't want to? Is it because our lives are so taken up with our own sense of importance and anything that inconveniences that life is not to be allowed? Why don't we resile from abortion as we resile from other shameful practices? Why do we not consider it to be an evil act? Why don't we consider all life to be precious and must be preserved at all costs? Why don't we treat it as an unspeakable abomination to be avoided at all costs? I believe that Pro Life / Pro Choice are both crude choices. Both leave the decision to the woman. Should the decision to abort be the woman's alone and no one else's? And does the father have any rights to the fetus? Is the fetus judged to have any rights? The wider moral question is not considered. What is life? What is abortion. Whose life is it? I believe that society should start by considering that the sanctity of life to be not negotiable? When a woman says she should have control over her own body does she ever consider that the fetus is not her body - could she ever consider it to be someone else's body? In reality when a woman is pregnant the fetus is always someone else's body. It can never be her body. She is simply carrying the fetus until birth. Why isn't this self evident? I think we should remove the personal from the argument and consider it in the abstract. A woman has the privilege of carrying a life in the form of a fetus until birth. In abstract terms life is life and does not belong to any other individual except the individual whose life it is. No matter what the inconveniences involved - in abstract terms it is separate to the pregnancy. Comments are closed.
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