Voting For Life Or Death In Minnesota

A Minnesota couple have established an online poll at their blog to determine whether or the pregnant wife should give birth to their baby, or not.

"Help Us Decide"

You can vote and choose whether we abort or keep our unborn child. For the first time, your vote on the topic of abortion can make a difference.

A grim countdown calendar ticks downward, day after day, with a fateful cut-off to determine whether or not a child will live or die.

Dec. 9th is the last day we could legally get an abortion in our state. This vote will remain open until 2 days prior to allow for the procedure if decided.

The Daily Mail UK newspaper, whose reporter has more time to read blogs than I do, quotes an older post (without supplying the link) from the mother-to-be:

She wrote: 'I'm not convinced that I want to change the status quo. I feel that as I age I've actually gotten more selfish and set in my ways.
'I'm afraid that I will eventually regret starting a family and "settling down", as they say.
'I fear that the constant pressure to be the perfect wife and mother while maintaining a full-time job will eventually cause my brain to implode and lead to a nervous breakdown.

To value life as the blessed gift that it is, why not grow to see how we can never really "know" whether or not we will succeed at the tasks most worth doing. We can hope, but we can't "know". Studying for a trade, starting a business, getting married, starting a family. These acts require faith, and embracing these challenges is an act of faith.

Sometimes simply living is an act of faith.

Insight into the God of secular liberalism: He Who Recycles

We know from history that fear of death has driven men to do many evil things to their fellows humans. However, some people shudder at your irrationality if you make any such statement in relation to those who would merely harvest stem cells from some already-aborted foetus for therapeutic use in an established human being. And generally, people have yet fewer quibbles with harvesting cells from human embryos no longer needed by fertility clinics. I wonder, however, how far the avatars of such reason will try to justify their pragmatism when/if it evolves in terms of a larger vision or ideology of human recycling:

London, England, Mar 13, 2009 / 04:04 am (CNA).- A leading embryonic stem cell expert in Britain has called for organs from aborted babies to be used in transplants to increase the supply of organs available for donation, drawing criticism from pro-life and Christian groups who called the proposal “absolutely horrifying.”

Professor Sir Richard Gardner of Oxford University, an advisor to the Royal Society and the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, made his comments at an Oxford International Biomedical Center conference, the Daily Mail reports.

Expressing surprise that the possibility has not been considered, he said using fetal tissues for organ transplant is “probably a more realistic technique in dealing with the shortage of kidney donors than others.”

Experiments in mice, he said, have shown that fetal kidneys grow extremely quickly when transplanted into adult animals.

Using aborted fetuses “is something that could be done but it's not something that's talked about much.”

“It is at least a temporary solution,” he said, also calling for a study into the feasibility of such procedures.

Professor Stuart Campbell, a London obstetrician who argued for the abortion time limit to be lowered, had no ethical objections to the proposal, arguing that many babies were aborted quite late.

“If they are going to be terminated, it is a shame to waste their organs,” he claimed.

“I am sure very few of those on the transplant list would rather die than accept an organ from an aborted fetus,” he told the Daily Mail.

Dr. Peter Saunders of the Christian Medical Fellowship said the transplants would be immoral because every human being deserves “protection, respect, wonder and empathy.”

Josephine Quintavalle, of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, called the proposal “absolutely horrifying,” telling the Daily Mail:

“At what stage do you say to the woman who is to have an abortion, ‘Can we have some organs for transplant?’”

It now becomes clearer for me why it is a point of morality for the religious to believe in a God who resurrects his children in a world to come (or, perhaps, why in many primitive religions significant items of wealth are buried along with the dead). Because if you don't, you may find it difficult to resist making some vision of nature's recycling into a human-centred religion so that you won't see wrong with using some humans, or human parts, to extend other peoples' lives. History teaches that some men, like Aztec or Eugenic priests, will go to great lengths to cannibalize their fellow humans, if it means keeping their dreams for this world alive. What could be the next terrain conquered by the ethic of reduce, reuse, recycle?

'Absolutely horrifying’ proposal calls for using aborted babies as organ donors (HT: Gil Bailie)

First Past The Post But Last Through The Gate

Surely, a new low in hatred against Sarah Palin, as a stand-up comedian antes up $25,000 as the starting bribe for Governor Palin's pregnant daughter to abort her baby:

Please consider my offer as time is of the essence. You don't want this child, the father certainly doesn't want this child and the world doesn't need another wailing mouth to feed.

He tempts her with the siren song of personal experience; he once had a girlfriend who aborted their child, adding a tragic cost to the old expression of "free time" and a ghoulish nuance to the term "disposable income":

We made the right choice and rather than end up bitter rivals in court battles over custody or support, we are great friends who high-five over our decision and have all the free time and disposable income that young mothers never know.

The comedian rallies like-minded troops at his blog with what must be an alluring hook for his fellow-believers:

If you really care about the environment, one abortion does more than any hybrid car or a lifetime of recycling. ... Do the right thing... Empty the chamber.

The comedian is so dedicated to his beliefs that he plans on continuing to spread his message from beyond the grave:

... in my will, I shall have a good portion of my estate turned into the Sarah J Palin Abortion Fund that will help girls from all walks of life from destroying their lives and our natural resources by having children.

The comedian frames his website's offer around a photoshoped image of Palin's daughter cradling a bag of money instead of a baby, and what better revelation could there be for how this materialistic comedian sees his fellow human beings: as things, not people, bearing only costs, without accruing benefits.

Again and again, his statements reveal his obsession with, and ultimately his love of, money; in his view, for there to be one more person seated at the table means amounts only to a smaller serving for himself. I say love of money, rather than love of self; for if he really loved himself, is this truly the position that he would take on bringing new life into the world... and what he would do with his beloved money?

Once upon a time, there was a young child who shared this comedian's starkly limited vision of the world and its potential riches. After six glorious years as the center of his family's attention, the youngster suddenly found himself sharing the spotlight with a young sister. Starting that winter, Christmas would see two groups of presents under the tree, one for him and one for the sister; sadly, his limited mind, a mind closed by limited experiences, saw much less than what was really going on around him. The new arrival needed more, and so received more, while with him needing less he consequently received his due as well. Justice was done to both, but his self-serving point of view, narrowed by his youth, made it seem as if one was being rewarded at the expense of the other.

Thankfully, little by little, as the young fellow grew in age, his perception grew as well. There were many burdens that he began to shoulder, from developing sufficiently sharp eyes and quick reflexes so that he could prevent his sister from eating dirt while both played in the backyard, to learning the patience involved in helping her learn to tie her shoes, then later lessening her fears by explaining what's involved in attending school, and more... so much more, that through these tests even his simple mind began to see the sense in filling more seats around the family's table: through helping her it was really him who was being helped.

The more that was asked of him, the more of him there seemed to give. And most importantly, the greater the sacrifices he seemed to make, the more he saw himself receiving, in his turn: a single smile of gratitude did much to repay an afternoon's expenditure of time and attention, more than he ever would have imagined possible, back at that first shocking Christmas. Such smiles, he recognized, brought more joy to him than any Christmas present ever did. Even though he was the oldest, the younger sister was the true teacher. He arrived first, but acquired wisdom last.

He may have started off as one blind to the feast that was to come, but eventually he couldn't avoid observing that the more he served others, the more he felt that he was the one truly being served.

It took the young chap many years to escape his limited world view, to finally see the blessings brought to his world by the presence of a younger sister. With each breath she brought to life physical proof of the infinite resources available for that most precious of riches: love. It took too long for him to learn that living life with his sibling revealed he was not loved half as much, but equally, meaning that his parents' capacity for sacrificial love had been doubled, not divided.

Today, as the not-so-young brother's hair shows spots of grey, the niece and nephews his sister brought into the world teach him the lesson anew... seeing the oldest take care of the youngest, taking pride in the new responsibilities and expectations thrust upon him, and learning how in great giving there can be great gains. His faith in the existence of this paradox is renewed, through the new generation of "wailing mouths to feed".

If such important lessons can be learned from one sibling to another, how much greater can the education be between parent and child? For in that relationship there are demands for even greater sacrifices... and through the greater service, the chance to witness even greater love.

For the comedian who tries to deny others a seat at the table, falsely believing that in so doing his own slim portions may increase, the joke is ultimately on him: in the long run he'll lose far more than he'd ever have gotten.

For the last will be first and the first will be last.

[Hat Tip to Dave Hartline of the Catholic Report]

Halls of ivy and blood

UPDATE: The following story is a hoax, or sort of.

Yale Daily News - For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse:

Art major Aliza Shvarts ’08 wants to make a statement.

Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible” while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.

The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts’ project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock — saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

But Shvarts insists her concept was not designed for “shock value.”

“I hope it inspires some sort of discourse,” Shvarts said. “Sure, some people will be upset with the message and will not agree with it, but it’s not the intention of the piece to scandalize anyone.”

Read it all... if you have the stomach.

On the list where this story came to my attention, someone responding writes:

This piece truly is a work of art, and the artist exceptional. Art, at its essence, is simply a refection of the world it is born into. It describes the zeitgeist. That this truly is authentic art speaks volumes about us … and is very sad.

But isn't this the incomplete understanding of art that allows this sad act to occur in the first place? I mean, what is the difference between representing our violence or callousness towards the stuff and means of life, and "performing" it? In asking the question, have I just fallen into this "work" of "art"? or is it just politics that I've engaged? I think art is inherently political, even when not directly so (since even the contemplation of beauty or nature cannot be divorced from a developing human self-understanding on the political scene) but not all politics is art.