The Ordination of Relative Ethics
by Kathy Brown on March 1st, 2010 | 0 comments
As the political season heats up again, it behooves us all to consider carefully the government’s role in the ordination of relative ethics. Recently, I was asked a very interesting question: Would the pro-life position be to deny a woman the right to end her pregnancy if her own life was threatened by it.
That is worth thinking through. If a pro-life advocate agrees to the assumption that the unborn are human beings, most of the reasons for abortion are eliminated. It follows that abortion should not be used as birth control or as a means to eliminate those who are deemed less than “perfect” by society. In the case of rape, there can hardly be a case made for ending life depending on the circumstances of conception. That is a moot point for those struggling in the womb to survive. The scenario under consideration has less to do with ending life and more to do with whose life will be rescued first.
Let’s assume that a physician arrives at the scene of a horrific car accident. His duty, and impulse, is to do no harm. He checks all the victims. He orders in his mind the best way to save those before him. He triages. In an effort to rescue some, his attention must go to those with the most opportunity to survive. His reason does not even stumble on an idea that the worst of those still alive should be killed right off the bat. Knowing that he is not omniscient is a given; he has incorporated this admission into his practice. He works to sustain any life he can using all his mental acuity, the resources at hand and informed experience. This art and science of caring for life makes him qualified to be a doctor.
It seems absurd that there is justification for abortion based on a hypothetical that has been ill-defined. More than that, the laws that allow abortion have set a dangerous president played out in history before. Surely Hitler’s regime should be our warning siren. His eugenics movement began with giving doctors the right to rid a society of those who were not “fit” and well. It ended in a whole scale extermination of Jews. Hands entrusted to heal became the touch of torture and death. We need to remember that.
God is the author of life, as described in Exodus 8:17 – 18:
“. . .and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats. But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not.”
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