I woke on Saturday to hear two
oddly juxtaposed items on the radio. The first was a discussion on Farming
Today about the problem of the male offspring of dairy cows. As I understand
it, the dilemma is that they’re not much good for beef and so the practice has
been to kill them at birth. The spokesman for Compassion in World Farming was
predictably opposed to this, and I got the impression that his view was winning
traction more generally. The second was a headline item on the news immediately
following it. This was about the exit polls from the Irish referendum on
abolishing the Constitution’s Eighth amendment, which banned all abortions
except when the mother’s safety was in danger. For this there was general
approbation, implying that at last the Republic of Ireland had caught up with
the modern world. Later in the day when the official result of a two-thirds yes
vote was confirmed, the news included prolonged and loud celebration of the
victory.
What struck me was the very
peculiar dissonance of our concern for the new-born uneconomic calves and
apparent disregard for unborn babies. I understand that medically provided
abortion is far safer than any alternatives, and I understand that women who
become pregnant against their wills have a case to be allowed to choose to
continue with their pregnancy or not. I also understand those who argue for the
rights of the unborn child to be taken into account. The NHS website’s
description week 10 of pregnancy reads:
“The ears are starting to develop
on the sides of your baby's head, and the ear canals are forming inside
the head.
If you could look at your baby's
face, you would be able to see an upper lip and two tiny nostrils in the
nose. The jawbones are developing and already contain all the future milk
teeth.
 |
| Picture from NHS website |
The baby is making small, jerky
movements that can be seen on an ultrasound scan.” In other words from very
early on we describe a foetus as a baby.
I suppose the question is, Is it really, as I recently heard, a matter of the rights of a woman against the rights of an egg? When
does a baby begin to have rights? And are his or her rights ever equal to those
of the mother – or even of a new-born calf?
And I ask myself, should the unconfined celebrations
of women’s choice not have been tempered with sorrow for inevitable death of
the babies whose lives will be terminated?
In this country we have seen the
increasing use of abortion to kill unborn children with Down’s Syndrome and
disabling conditions. We have also seen it spreading to become “on demand” and
as a desperate form of contraception. I hope that Ireland never passes
legislation that allows abortion to be as misused as it has become here. And personally I trust that the North doesn't get railroaded into a rush to become like the rest of the UK.
