何毓琦的个人博客分享 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/u/何毓琦 哈佛(1961-2001) 清华(2001-date)

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Why are abortions such a passionate controversy?

已有 1422 次阅读 2024-10-30 05:58 |个人分类:生活点滴|系统分类:海外观察

Why are abortions such a passionate controversy?

A specific example illustrates this:

A women desperately wanted to have a family and give birth to a child. After many attempts she was finally pregnant. However, she had her routine 20 week prenatal test a bit late, and it showed that the baby has genetic anomalies that make it unlikely to survive for more than a few weeks after birth, or if it does, it will require intensive medical care and would suffer greatly. Doctors advised the women of abortion possibilities. The women replied: "I will have to discuss with my family and decide what to do." The doctors tell her that if she chooses to terminate the pregnancy, she must do so immediately and cannot wait two weeks to make her decision because then her pregnancy will have passed the deadline that the government declared to be legal to abort a pregnancy, even though the likelihood of survival of the pregnancy will not have changed in two weeks. If she waits, the hospital will be fined and doctors will be put in jail for performing the procedure. "Wait a minute!" says the woman, "who gave the government the right to decide that if I do it tomorrow this is a good and necessary medical procedure and but in two weeks it will be illegal even though my fetus will likely not survive regardless of what I do or when? I have gestational diabetes and carrying this pregnancy to term is a risk to my own health." Even if she travels to the next state where there is an exception for genetic anomalies, no doctors there will actually perform the procedure either because they are scared of being sued if someone questions their decision about whether her case meets the criteria for an exception. So she has to fly to a far away state, taking extra days off of work and finding childcare for her other child, to terminate her pregnancy. (I acknowledge the help of my youngest daughterwho is most knowledgible in helping me with the facts of this matter)

The world is full of examples or regulations which were instituted with perfectly good intentions but by hind sight or in specific cases will appear to be tragic/unjust. Does the minority have to suffer just for the convenience of the majority? Should majority rule always be the norm? Arrow's impossibility theorem proved that democracy/justice can never be perfect. Each alternative will have unacceptable consequences. We hope any decision will do the most good. But that is majority rule once again! But not to decide is also an imperfect decision/act. You cannot win; you cannot even quit the game! Life must go on! Who said, not even God, that life is  fair!

But each individual act of kindness and charity ameriorates the built-in injustices. It is up to each one of us to try and give meaning to life.



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