Letter to the Editor
Adoption option
Published Monday, August 18, 2008
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To the editor:
There is probably little else that has polarized our nation like the abortion issue. Perhaps it’s because no one wants to admit they might be wrong. Proponents of abortion state it’s a “woman’s right” to have a say over her own body. That is true to an extent, but once conception has occurred, you’re no longer just in control of your own body. There are two bodies now, and regardless of how that conception occurred, yes even through rape, there is a human being growing within you.
It’s incredible to me that if a pregnant woman is murdered, the murderer is charged with a double homicide, but that same woman can “murder” her own child within her womb and it’s called “terminating or aborting the pregnancy.” These are nothing more than sanitized semantics. It’s murder no matter how you try to clean up the phrase.
If a young woman finds herself in a situation in which she feels she cannot deal with raising the child, there are numerous organizations that will step up and help. No, at almost 65, I’m not looking to adopt a child, but untold hundreds, perhaps even thousands of couples right here in our area alone would be more than willing to provide a caring, loving home to your child. The best place to start is with Care Net Pregnancy Center — 455-TALK (8255) or 24-hour hot line 1-800-508-HOPE (4673) — or Fairbanks Counseling and Adoption — 456-4729. These folks are there to help and encourage you, not to judge or accuse you. Please, I beg you, give them a call. These also are worthy organizations for your charitable donations.
As an adopted child with no knowledge of the circumstances of my conception, I am eternally grateful my biological mother chose life. I have four beautiful children and seven wonderful grandsons that are her offspring, and I thank God she choose life for me and the selfless act to give me up for adoption so I could be raised in a loving, Christian home with two parents who loved me and my adopted brother without regard for our genetic heritage.
Dot Keith
Fairbanks
Community Discussion
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Dot, I am just wondering... if we are going to hypothetically call an abortion murder, will we call a miscarriage suicide?
Our bodies, our choices... keep abortion safe, keep abortion legal.
A mother and fetus can not be considered biologically separate beings, the fetus can not survive without the mother, and thus should not be considered as a totally separate entity. A fetus is also not a baby. It has the POTENTIAL to become a baby. It's not actually one until it is born.
Also, if a pregnant woman is murdered it is not always considered double homicide. It varies from state to state. In some states it's not double homicide at all, in others it's only double homicide after the woman is past a certain number of weeks, and in other states it is considered double murder.
The law is based on the potential for that fetus to become a baby. They are going with the assumption that if the pregnancy was allowed to continue it would have produced a viable baby. That allows them to pursue the harshest punishment against someone.
"will we call a miscarriage suicide"
I can't believe anyone could write something so cruel and heartless. My personal opinion is that abortion is killing a baby and that it shouldn't be used as a form of birth control. But to bring miscarriages into this is just horrible. You should be embarrassed.
Sorry to offend... when I am called a murder!!! Who has had a miscarrage and is pregnant!!!
I'm glad the letter writer had such a positive experience with adoption. Unfortunately, all unplanned births don't have such a happy ending. Especially for handicapped, drug addicted, FAS, autistic, or otherwise handicapped children. Until we have the resources to accomodate and care for all of the kids who will never be adopted, abortion is a necessary evil. Our overburdened child services systems can't provide for the kids currently in the system, and there simply aren't enough prospective adoptive parents out there to take up the slack.
It was a hypothetical statement... to prove a point on judging others!!!
Both murder and suicide are sins punished by hell in the Christian faith... So am I going to hell for having an abortion when I was a young woman with a significant other who did not want the child... a relationship that I had been in for a number of years.. or will the fetus that I miscarried go to hell... if by this authors implications life begins at conception? Or was I being punished by God... who wanted me to experience the pain of losing a fetus... as a way to pay me back for having an abortion...?
I like to think that God is forgiving. That the abortion that I chose was the right decision for me. That my miscarriage was an unhealth pregnancy.
But, is someone is going to call a woman a 'murder' for having an abortion... that is cruel and unjust!!
Our bodies, our rights, our freedom to choose!!
If abortion is murder, an unplanned miscarriage is an accident.
I have a penis, and therefore I'm pretty unqualified to have an opinion on what a woman does with her body or not. That said, I've got an opinion.
Why is it that it's the christian right that always seems to force this issue? What about freedom? What about individual rights? Aren't these all good, christian, conservative, right wing thoughts? Why is it that the bible beaters are the ones standing out on the corner with the whacky signs screaming at me that I am going to hell, because I am not there with them? What? I don't even have a uterus. How can you tell me that I'm going to hell? Engage them in conversation sometime, it's rather funny to present them with a logical response. They have to scatter like roaches to come up with a response.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. It's funny that the right by-and-large thinks that abortion is bad.....but only when it's not their 14 year old daughter. Then it's something to be dealt with quickly, before she starts to show. Wouldn't want people to talk, after all.
If someone wants an abortion, it should be legal, safe, and available. The rest of it is just an imposition of your own worldview onto another person.
JoeBtfsplk: "So the best we can say is that abortion somewhat slowed the slide into socialism..."
I just reviewed your comments -- 83 to date -- and discovered that this is your eighth using the word "socialism" or "socialist". In fact, it's your second this morning.
Do you think you can present an argument without bringing up that dread bogeyman? Please?
I quit reading the article after the following statement sentence.
"There are two bodies now, and regardless of how that conception occurred, yes even through rape, there is a human being growing within you."
The writer seems to suggest a woman who has been raped should endure the pregnancy and then deliver a reminder of that assualt......
Having read that the rest of her opinion is descredited .... IMO
Don't take the bait! Guilt is the Christian extremist modus operandi. This being an emotional issue as opposed to a rational one, it has utility for enslaving additional minds. Rational thought has no place in religion.
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own." --Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814.
As I recall, 65 years ago abortions WEREN'T legal or readily available, especially safe abortions.
"The Christian system of religion is an outrage on common sense." -- Thomas Paine quoted by Joseph Lewis in Inspiration and Wisdom from the Writings of Thomas Paine
A miscarriage is when a baby commits suicide? How, exactly, does a fetus intentionally end their own life? What a stupid statement...
Andjsutice4all - “Dot, I am just wondering... if we are going to hypothetically call an abortion murder, will we call a miscarriage suicide...?”
An abortion is a deliberate act perpetrated on human being for the benefit of another person. A miscarriage is a natural act that the body undergoes when it experiences an unviable pregnancy. A miscarriage can be considered a suicide as much as dying of old age can be considered a suicide.
Marie Barr- “A mother and fetus can not be considered biologically separate beings; the fetus can not survive without the mother, and thus should not be considered as a totally separate entity…”
Your definition of “biologically separate beings” is not in any textbook or medical journal article that I’m aware of. A fetus has different DNA than the mother. The fetus may or may not have a different blood type, hair color, eye color, or even different sexual organs. If that’s not a good description of a “biologically separate being” than what is? Furthermore, your definition of a “biologically separate being” fails to recognize a whole set of human conditions. A toddler cannot survive without the assistance of another human being. Are toddlers not deserving of life? An individual in a coma cannot survive without outside assistance. Do comatose individuals suddenly become subhuman?
Ken Woods- “I have a penis, and therefore I'm pretty unqualified to have an opinion on what a woman does with her body or not….”
The last time I checked there hasn’t been a woman in the last 2000 years that’s gotten pregnant without the assistance of a man, so you have every right to have an opinion on abortion. Furthermore, there may come a day when it’s your child, your son, your daughter in the womb of some self-centered, irresponsible, narcissistic female and I guarantee you’ll want to have a say. It amazes me that a couple can’t sell a car without the permission of both people, yet a woman can take the life of another person’s child on whim.
Brass Monkey- "The Christian system of religion is an outrage on common sense." – Thomas Paine
Finding a quote on an unrelated topic does not add anything to the conversation. And it certainly doesn’t make you seem intelligent. It just means that you know how to work the “Google machine.” See, even I can work the Google machine.
Every religion is good that teaches man to be good; and I know of none that instructs him to be bad. – Thomas Paine.
The history of the anti-choice movement is interesting. Up until 1980 abortion was not even on the radar, even after the passing of RvW. Nada. If you look at the pamphlets and sermons and lectures of the time you will find that divorce was the only social issue. Divorce bad! Then in the early 70s, at the tail end of the Civil Rights movement, the feds passed a law cutting off money to colleges that discriminated on the basis of race. Well, there was a very long list of lily white southern baptist colleges like Bob Jones that wouldn't let minorities in and they screamed bloody murder. Jimmy Carter was their great white hope to get this law eliminated and when he wouldn't do it they came unglued. Ronnie Reagan won the primary in 1980 and the baptists were aching to help him beat Carter in the hopes that he'd restore racial segregation in the southern colleges, but he'd been divorced. Divorce bad! So they had to suddenly abandon divorce as a social cause and invent an entirely new issue to rally the peasants, and here we are today. One of the major ironies in all this is that the bible belt now has some of the highest divorce rates.
I am not looking to get into the abortion issue, but the adoption one.
As a woman who is unable to bear children, I have and intend to look into adoption. For some reason, it is excessively difficult to adopt in this country unless you are wealthy and socially "normal". There are already over a million children homeless in this Great Society, many placed in homes where they are beat, abused, used and worse. Kids who are born into this system by and large do not come out well. I am not saying it is a reason to abort, but things are not all as rosy as this letter paints it.
BTW... why is socialism a bogeyman?
Hello all, I'm new to posting, but I would like to chime in on this one. I count myself a Christian. I define this as somebody who believes that Jesus as their Lord and Savior and who tries to model his or her actions after Him. I also define this as somebody who tries to treat others as they believe He would treat them. That said...I am not perfect. It is also my personal opinion, that abortion is wrong. HOWEVER...I also believe that God gave each and every one of us a free will. I will also NEVER judge somebody else because they wish to, or have had, an abortion. I will never personally penalize, by chastising, any grown adult for a decision they may have made, whether I agree with it or not. Who am I to take away someone else's god-given free will? Their decisions are between them and their maker. Not me. My "job" in this life is to do my best to show ALL others, regardless of their decisions or their belief system, unconditional love. I also agree with others in this post that God is a forgiving God. I believe that if somebody asks and is sincere, that their transgressions will be forgiven, no matter what they might have been. I know women who have had abortions...I know others who chose the adoption option. There are still others I know who kept their children and raised them to adulthood. Of the decisions made by these friends of mine, none was easy. I feel that I can best offer my help in situations like this not by judging, but by offering whatever moral support that I can. I counsel my family the way that I believe. I will never be caught standing on a street corner with my family, young children included, parading around signs with disgusting photos and mongering intolerance among the people...but I refuse to hate those who do. I suppose the point I'm making is that we should respect another persons' right to free will. Even if we do not agree with them, we do not need to shove our opinions or beliefs down their throats. Am I saying that we should sit idly by and not fight for our cause? No, but there's no reason we can't tolerate others and respect their PERSONAL decisions while sharing our own opinions constructively. There's no reason this really needs to be legislated either way. I like to believe we live in a "majority rules" society. Maybe I'm naive for this. But what it means to me is that if the majority wants these procedures legal, then they will be. The opposite holds true as well. The only legislation needed, in my opinion, is that during times when the availability of these procedures is desired by the majority, then rules ought to be in place to ensure a womans' safety.
If you don't want an abortion... don't get one.
That particular Thom Paine quote is quite relevant since it is only the loudest Christians of the extreme right who pursue this divisive issue. Others are willing to keep government out of it and permit these delicate choices to be made at the level of personal ethics, while acknowledging a variety of circumstances. Mike Danger, you sound like that know-it-all blowhard Mike Savage, whose real name, incidentally is Mike Weiner. Do you have a similarly hilarious moniker?
MikeDanger - Find an encyclopedia and look up "parasite" and you will see what my statement was based on.
BIOLOGICALLY a toddler can live on it's own. It's lungs work, it's heart works, it's digestive system works etc. It may not be able to procure food, shelter, or water on it's own, but the toddlers body can complete all the necessary biological processes to life without assistance.
This is not the case with a fetus. It biologically can not perform the functions of life without the mother. Things like age, and if someone is in a coma or not are PHYSICAL barriers that prevent them from functioning on their own, not BIOLOGICAL ones.
In many places someone who is in a coma who can not perform all the necessary biological functions on their own (breathing, eating etc) can be taken off life support thus ending their life.
I can appreciate the thoughts of the writer and I think those who believe the same should have their rights speak. However, I don't agree with them. Don't have an abortion if you don't like them.
Growing up in a conservitive christian community I saw the incredible hypocrisy of the most conservitive people. They preached against drinking, abuse etc. then went home, got drunk and beat their wives and kids.
akbychoice---- handicapped children ?autism,f.a.s.,drug addicted whats that got to with anything their all children just because they have disabilities doesn't mean that someone out in the world wont love them.I have 3 adopted children and they have disabilities and I love every one of them !!
great posts donb and mike danger. my stance is that all along the course of life decisions and actions taken in the present will limit or increase options available in the future. if a burglar decides to and breaks into a house and gets caught his choices become rather limited in the near future as he or she sits in jail.
if you choose to have intimate relations as a woman you might contract a STD or get pregnant. andjustice4all (who is obviously just interested in justice for herself) stated the common and very selfish current attitude that my rights right now are more important than any potential human beings in the future.
if you are a male and choose to have intimate relations then you risk contracting a STD or being legally responsible for the financial and emotional wellbeing of a new human being.
there is always a reason god would hand down to us these pain-in-the-butt rules in the bible. these rules aren't there just because he is a mean god and doesn't want us to have any fun. they are there because they are good for us. if everyone followed the rule of only having sexual intercourse with a spouse and never strayed. and if everyone actually did what it says in the wedding vows and not "let any put man put asunder what god has brought