Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferd
Dave, I suspect you are to the right of me on this. where pregnancy is concerned, if the baby's existance will kill the mother, I cant call that baby innocent, even though in some way it is.
there are very very rare cases of this but we are talking REALLY rare. Most of these cases would end in the mother dying before the baby could survive and thus both would die.
Right now, "health of the mother" includes getting a doctor to agree that having a baby would 'stress the mother out"... that is sick if you ask me.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ReformedDave
Yes I'm a bit to the right. It's just interesting that 'guilt' is placed on the unborn.
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Both of you are stuck on silly. It isn’t a matter of who’s innocent and who isn’t. There’s a word for this…”tragedy”. Sometimes due to tragic circumstances women have to choose abortion. My heart goes out to them. Yes…many women might abuse that choice. But frankly, God will get them. I’m concerned with my wife and who gets to make the most difficult choices that we could be faced with.
I'm going to open up some and share some things that I'm still really hurting over. Please don't mock or berrate me. If you feel I've done anything wrong...please PRAY for me. But here goes...
You know my mom died last year. Bro…those doctors sat me and my family down in a consultation room and explained how grim things looked. They said there was always a chance that my mother could stabilize. But with each episode that chance looked less likely. They said that they could keep her on the machines and keep her alive…or we could let her go. Then they told me the decision was mine because I’m her only child.
I was faced with a life or death decision.
I had to pray.
I searched my heart for what I believed was right.
I considered what my mother would want.
I talked to my grandma.
I talked to my ants and uncle.
I talked to my wife.
This was my mom. This was, “Mommy.” She was a single parent, the only person I ever had. She held me when I was scared, taught me how to ride a bike, kissed my scrapes and bruises, pushed me on the swing in the summer sunshine, this was the only one who ever said, “I believe in you.” She cheered my graduating from high school (first in my family). This is the one who cried and waved goodbye when my wife and I drove away for our honeymoon. She’s the one who was beaming with pride when I graduate from the US Army Academy of Health Sciences (D 2/32, Ft. Sam Houston, San Antonio TX) and marched into my military service as Combat Medical Specialist. I was trained to save lives in the most dire of circumstances…and now…here is my mom…only 54 years old…on a machine…she didn’t have the money to see a doctor when her condition could have been treated….I couldn’t drag her out of enemy fire…I couldn’t call in a med-evac….now I had to make a choice….the most difficult and gut wrenching choice I’ve ever had to make. I had to choose rather my mother would stay on the machines with the slim chance that she would stabilize….or let her go. I stood next to her bed and held her hand. I explained to her everything the doctors had told me. I told her that the doctors placed the decision in my hands. And I looked at my heavily sedated mother and told her…I loved her…I told her that the whole family loved her….I told her how much she meant to me…and I told her that I couldn’t allow them to keep her on machines and beat on her all night to keep her heart beating when the prospects were very slim that she would stabilize. I explained to her that I had chosen to let her go. I held her hand and I began to weep and pray. They disconnected the machines that were assisting her. And as I prayed with her, hear heart began erratic rhythms. The nursing staff stood poised to act in the event that I changed my mind. I held her hand as they stood down….and I let her slip into eternity.
That last thing I needed was some bureaucrat over my shoulder telling me what the Government regulation are. I’d have probably thrown him out of that fifth story hospital window.
If at some point I end up in that consultation room again…and my pregnant wife is on the table…and the doctors explain the risks and advise we consider abortion to save her life or preserve her health…our baby is ours. We’ll pray and talk. And if she feels the need to choose…we will place our hands on her belly…we will cry…and I will stand by her and her decision to preserve her life and/or health and mourn the loss of our baby. It will be a dark day like the day I let my mother go. But the point is…these are decisions that only individuals are capable of making. The Government can’t make these decisions. I don’t look at it like it’s “a woman’s right to choose”. I look at it like, “it’s my wife’s right to choose”. I trust her judgment. I cannot allow you or the rest of these right wingnuts take the power to make that most difficult decision in life away from us. Right or wrong….that’s our decision to make.
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