Abortion

Since we are not allowed to write about abortion for any of our major assignments, I thought I’d write about my take on the issue because it's a bit different from everyone else’s. As black and white as the issue may seem, I feel that there are plenty of grey areas that should be taken into consideration. This is relevant to the topic of college life because young people tend to have irresponsible sex and might not be prepared for or know about the repercussions.


I believe there are valid reasons to be for or against abortion. It’s the termination of a potential human being. The thing about potential and the future is that we all act like it exists, however it's only a conception of the imagination. We know this because when someone says “you’re not living to your full potential” we often agree and understand it to a large extent despite not being able to fully articulate as to exactly why we understand. In other words, humans are burdened with the knowledge of the inevitable, potential future. We kid ourselves when we think babies are an exception to that idea.


If someone is betraying their consciousness, and understand what they are doing is purely out of selfishness, convenience, and the rejection of responsibility, then a case can be made that it would be morally wrong (morality being what is beneficial to you, your family, society, for today and the future) to abort the child; you’re betraying your integrity and you run the risk of regretting the decision, setting a bad example, or developing some form of depression.


However, if you are in no place to raise a child and you know it, or the cost outweighs the benefits, or you just don’t care, then the termination of the fetus would be understandable, (hell, maybe even recommended) but to make the case that it's something that should be divorced from morality, in reference to everyone and not the individual case by case, would be counterproductive to what is the greater good for society. It’s important to revere human life AS IF it's sacred because the alternative would be (I’d imagine) returning to archaic behaviors where people act out of self-interest with no consideration of the well being of others.


Something I find quite comical is that we are perfectly willing to destroy a fetus, but scientists are not allowed to effectively practice eugenics (without all the Nazi connotations), otherwise known as gene editing. Something that can eliminate disease and unnecessary suffering and improve the quality of life. I think I’ve read somewhere that scientists are only allowed to experiment with embryos for a very limited period of time. Gene editing is its early works now but the double standards are frustrating. Even the United States, after World War 2, didn’t charge Japanese scientists with war crimes after conducting heinous human experiments in Unit 731 in exchange for their information. The torturing of terrorists would be in the same catagory, and so on. (I guess foreigners are exempt from these standards. We’re still tribal animals at heart so it seems.)


Maybe the experimentation of human embryos and DNA, and abortion, in general, is treated with such sensitivity because perhaps a blob of cells, a potential baby, or just a baby, is something that should be treated with some dignity. Dignity because when we see a fetus, this alien looking creature, we often see ourselves, in a sense. However pathetic and pitiful this thing, this parasite is, I think it would be wise to contemplate this vulnerable state we were once in, and Think about how we were once at the mercy of our own mothers.

In conclusion, I believe abortion is basically “killing babies”, but I don’t believe it is my place to judge and control the decisions of other people, at least when it comes to making policies. Quite the contrary, I care very little, I think there are plenty of people and we don’t need any more incompetent children raised by incompetent parents. It might seem paradoxical for me to say this after insisting that we should revere human life as if its sacred, but I think there should be a balance between recognizing the sovereignty of human life while also recognizing that, when we find ourselves in desperate situations, we are somewhat like animals trying to get by by any means necessary. However, it’s hard to say if this balance is possible to maintain in our society.