Mortal dangers of an arbitrary right to life
It might also be technically incorrect to interchange words like ‘child,’ ‘youth,’ ‘adolescent,’ etc.
But if we can afford individuals an equal right to life during all periods of development after birth, why should pro-lifers not advocate an equal right to life for the same distinct entity which in all cases begins life at conception but differs in levels of development?
Where abortion is available, the ridiculous anomaly exists whereby a medical team may work tirelessly to preserve the life of a child whose mother suffered a miscarriage or, conversely, might terminate the life of the same child at a much later point in the pregnancy.
In some cases, this can happen right up to the moment of delivery.
Partial birth abortion: this seems to indicate that the same entity can be classified as human or sub-human depending on its location inside or outside the womb.
Ms Cleary states that the “question should not be who has the greater right to life, but who has the right to a meaningful life?”
If the right to life of the unborn becomes so arbitrary that it depends entirely on what is convenient for the mother, it seems worth asking whether the vulnerability of life during early development will also transfer to those in their final years who become an inconvenience and a burden to those who feel they have a “right to meaningful life?”
Rory O’Donovan
Sunday’s Well Road
Cork
