Doug takes a look at the provocative issues of abortion and euthanasia

Doug Giles

"Thus says the Lord, for three transgressions of the sons of Ammon and for four I will not revoke its punishment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their borders."
Amos 1:13
According to the secular barbarians, prior to popping out of momma's womb a child has no right to live. It may be killed by its mother on any whim whatsoever. Nice. How culturally elite. How progressive-not!

We live in a secular and narcissistic culture where the barbaric has become the norm. If the unborn child is going to impede the mother in any way, it's cool to root that baby out because the little rascal could ruin her "life". Maybe its birth could interfere with Mom getting her BA degree, or expose the affair she's having with her college professor, or mess up her bikini body, or keep her from partying and sleeping with everything that moves.

Yes, the unborn and newly born are on thin ice with Mommy Dearest, their very life and death completely in her hands. An unborn baby in the secular world has no rights, at least none that our courts will legitimately recognize and protect.

Even though this "tissue" has a recognizable heart beat at six - 6! - weeks, and brain activity at ten - 10! - weeks, it's not a human according to these wizards until it breaches the mother's womb. Hey, secularists, help us ignoramuses out would you? If it's not a human being, then just precisely what is it?

The too easily convinced liberally educated young woman is told by the secularist counselor that for a few hundred bucks she can dispense with this inconvenient thing, return to "normal" everyday life and have no more problems. That is, except of course, until her conscience starts kicking her backside about three days later when she realizes she has exterminated her child. Then, her life becomes Nightmare on Elm Street.

I confess that sometimes I think it would be better for some kids to have been aborted, if living with uncaring parents in this cruddy culture is their only option. While Mom ignores them because she's working on her tan and Dad's playing tennis with his mistress;

they wouldn't have to be raised by shoddy government day care;
they would never have to be babysat by some illiterate TV talk show;
they wouldn't have to view the latest pop wannabe trying to dance, sing and chew gum all at once;
they wouldn't have to watch politicians trip over their prevaricating tongues.
But thank God abortion is not the only alternative!
If the Osbournesque dysfunctionalism that is our postmodern familial world were the unborn child's only option, then it probably would be better to be aborted. Thankfully, there are millions of loving, caring husbands and wives, with good homes, couples who are connected with great schools and stellar communities, couples who would be incredibly grateful to adopt one of these children.

Jumping argumentative tracks and moving from Mommy's womb to the TV room at the retirement home, the secular barbarians are also completely breezy with our elders offing themselves, and if they need help taking their lives . well . a thoughtful secularist barbarian will assist them because, you see, they are there to help.

With death, that is.

Should an individual within the secular world prefer death to life . no problem. The anti-death-penalty-for-serious-crimes secularists will joyfully assist the aged person's suicide as much as they will facilitate a mother's abortion. Kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? (Note: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the "mercy" killing physician, gets most of his patient requests for the large cup of death usually right after 60 Minutes, The Whoopi Goldberg Show and The View have aired).

The secularist rejects a proposition central to Judeo-Christian thought regarding life and death: life is intrinsically good, and is therefore, sacrosanct. These secular barbaric "tools" see human beings as tools, which, if they don't somehow fit instrumentally within the secularists' Darwinian, utilitarian utopia, get tagged as "inconvenient" and are relegated to the "very expendable" list.

That's why abortion is no big deal, and neither is snuffing out the life of a so-called defective child, or suicide, or "mercy killing" a helpless senior. But God help you if you should ever kill a whooping crane egg or a baby manatee around them! They'll freak at the mere thought of harming the helpless little beasts. They'll get their support panties in a wad and might just tag your SUV with graffiti.

In contrast with the secular elite, the "stupid", "non-elite", "archaic", Judeo-Christian constituency views human life (beginning at conception and lasting until the person naturally croaks) as intrinsically good and thus sacred, not just instrumentally good. The Judeo-Christian community believes that from the embryo to the elderly, including severely retarded and coma patients in between, have dignity and value. As Robert George said, "Their significance is not based upon what they can do, or how they make us feel or whether or not we approve of their quality of life but principally because they live."

My ClashPoint is this: Just because your life sucks, don't take it out on the unborn, the infirm or the elderly by taking their lives. Just because your life is temporarily hopeless, that doesn't mean the child you're contemplating killing will share your nihilism.

Don't deprive it of its life because you don't have a life. Maybe his or her little presence within your world will cause you finally to grow up. If it's just too, too difficult to face maturity on a long term basis, what about being responsible and selfless long enough to bless a great couple with the gift of a child?

And think about this: your old man whom you want to take to Dr. Kevorkian because he has Alzheimer's, well . maybe he likes not being able to understand you any more. How about that? Maybe that's a perk for him. Or maybe he's pretending to be out of it just so he can mess with your head and pay you back for all the loans you reneged on, for endlessly playing those Barbara Streisand CD's and for constantly quoting TV talking heads.