Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Abortion

I have had arguments on abortion more times than I can remember. It all started when I offered philosophy 101 and we ‘philosophized’ about all sorts of things (who can remember the question “what happens when an irresistible object comes in contact with an immovable object?”... I pondered for hours). In my final year at the university, I offered Jurisprudence (which is the philosophy of law) and we were once again forced to talk about the morality or immorality of suicide, abortion, euthanasia...can’t remember them all. I wrote on abortion and I was almost crucified. I have to reiterate the fact that I am born again, tongue talking, Holy Spirit filled... you get the picture.

Abortion is a tricky topic. It has made some lose political offices, made others have a fatwa declared on them but the truth is that it happens and instead of being all so religious about it lets talk about it. I personally would not abort a child no matter the circumstances but then, why would I want to force my personal beliefs and morals down other people’s throats? I believe in legalizing abortion but with checks and balances. It is not as if the woman just swallows a pill and gets pregnant and I always argue that if bills are to be passed into laws making abortion illegal, maybe there should be a sex law also stating that before people have sex they should sign a document, supported by an affidavit, sworn on oath that they have agreed to engage in consensual sex and with birth control and in the event of the woman getting pregnant (if both adults are not married to each other), they would be liable to a fine of N 5,000,000 or five years imprisonment or both. Why do people see the absurdity in my proposed sex law and not the anti-abortion law?

I believe a law should be passed making abortion legal but also there should be a requirement that abortion counseling clinics should be created in every hospital where pregnant ladies who simply do not want the baby or whatever reason they have can consider giving the child up for adoption and sex education be taught in schools teaching students about abstinence or “safe sex” (which is a topic for another day).

Believe me, the effect would be that there would be a decline in abortion related deaths, people would become more responsible ( the view of a lay man like me)...but then again I ponder, how is it that we all are in one accord that stealing is bad but we are divided as to if abortion is? Was there a time when there was an argument on the morality of stealing? How was it resolved? Is it due to the fact that it was clearly stipulated in the bible “thou shall not steal” that we all concluded stealing was wrong?

I wonder.

1 comment:

Ibbi said...

Well written and thoughtful but that's to be expected. Interesting sex law you propose or should that be anti-sex law, its just a lot to go through don't you think? The signing of the affidavit, by the time that's done the moment is probably loss, but that's your plan isn't it?