We are living in an era of devalued human life and children bear the brunt of it. Abortion kills millions of babies, each year and now there are those who wish to extended abortion to include babies outside of the womb. Modern medical ethics is a major contributor to dehumanizing children.
A recent article in the “Journal of Medical Ethics”, written by medical ethicists, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva, titled, “After-birth Abortion: Why Should The Baby Live?” declares that “no ethical difference exists between a fetus and a newborn. Either both are human or neither.” It goes on to conclude that newborns aren’t viable human beings because they have no self-awareness and can’t understand what is being taken from them when they are killed. infanticide is already, practiced in the Netherlands and it would appear that medical ethicists are preparing to make it acceptable to the general public. I’m sad to say that modern culture is likely to embrace such thinking as it reflects the attitudes so many people have toward children, as not being quite human and therefore, disposable. The ethical values expressed by Giubilini and Minerva, dehumanize children and make it acceptable to kill them or use them for any purpose an adult chooses. These are the ethics of child abuse.
There should be no safer place for a child than inside his/her mother’s womb. Sadly, that is no longer true as many young women have been convinced that sex outside of marriage is acceptable and if a new life should be created, not to worry because an embryo and a fetus aren’t really human and it is okay to kill them. After conception birth control is there as a back up in the form of abortion. In fact, they are taught that it is a woman’s right to choose whether or not she will share her body with a developing human baby, even if that baby came into being because of a choice she made. A fetus or embryo has no rights because they are considered as just a bunch of cells and not quite human. ”I brought you into this world and by God, I can take you out!” This popular American idiom perfectly expresses the act of sacrificing pre-born children on the altar of promiscuous sex without consequence. When children get in the way of what adults want, they’d better watch out or they may not be allowed to live. Adults decide who is a viable human being and who isn’t. God’s values are too repressive so the seat of who decides what is right and what is wrong has been given over to medical ethicists and the new idea that has popped into their heads is that self-awareness is the marker for deciding when a child has become human. They are moving us from why should an embryo or fetus be aborted to “Why Should The Baby Live?” Acceptance of abortion is the precursor of infanticide.
“I brought you into this world and by God, I can take you out!” People who abuse children like seeing themselves as gods, bigger than life, with the power to bring life into the world and the power to end it. If you were ever abused as a child, I’m sure this expression is familiar and may even be a trigger for flash-backs of the abuse you endured. Of course, abusers don’t alway kill their victims and there are many ways to abuse that aren’t physical and leave no bruises but what all abusers must do in order to have the power of God over another is dehumanize and objectify their victim. Today, they are aided in objectifying children because the culture in general, has little regard for children and many can’t decide even when they “become” human. Even in areas where laws are in place to protect children, they don’t prevent abuse because the law lacks the teeth that common morality gives it. People think it is okay to hurt children, use them for sex toys, or for slaves around the house, and they disregard the law. Children have been objectified and dehumanized in the minds of many people, today.
Abortion and infanticide are the ultimate child abuse. It is the devaluing of human life that creates a cruel environment for all of us to live in. Often, I hear the argument made that only those who are religious think abortion is wrong. I say that only those who think abortion is ethically and morally right have put human beings in the place of God and that is a very dangerous thing to do. If pre-born and new-born children can be declared not-human there is no stopping point for this sliding rule. It is the same measure that Hitler used when he proclaimed the Jews as not quite human. It is the sliding measure of genocide and genocide is being declared upon children,today. Those of us who believe in God and look to Him for moral guidance have to speak up for children and we have to start speaking, loudly. We are on God’s side and we have to quit being afraid of how people judge us. The law may never change but we do have the power to influence morality in such a way as to make the need for law preventing abortion, irrelevant. If enough of us speak out, boldly and don’t back down, people will change their minds and their behavior.
Jesus views children as being equally as important as adults. In fact, He taught that we should become like children, if we wish to enter His Kingdom. He doesn’t view them as becoming human and the Bible makes no reference to when an embryo, fetus, or new-born becomes a viable human being. All persons are viable and each individual is important. When we kill our own children and devour them at the table of unhindered sexuality, we rob ourselves of an important part of the future. Abortion is the choice that ends an unwanted human life. After-birth abortion extends the time in which a child can be murdered without legal consequences simply, because they are unwanted by the woman who gave them life. However, God’s natural consequences can’t be removed and I’ve never known a woman who had an abortion and wasn’t haunted by her decision. Most of them were young and misled into dehumanizing their own child in their thinking so that they could do the unthinkable, kill their unborn child. Some say that abortion and infanticide can prevent child-abuse by ending the life of an unwanted child but abortion and infanticide are the ultimate child abuse and they are major contributors to creating an atmosphere where children are regarded as less than human. Just as Jesus made time for children and taught His disciples of their importance, so should we who believe in Jesus follow His example and speak up for and protect the lives of children by working to rehumanize them in the minds of others. Life begins at conception and all children have the God-given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Outstanding insights Pam! Reading this makes me wonder why even non-believers can’t see that we are taking the same steps which have lead to tragedy after tragedy throughout history. It all begins with devaluing human beings and thinking of them as less worthy of any rights or respect.
This was the basis for slavery here in our own country. We literally passed laws declaring blacks less than human and thus unworthy of the freedoms and protections declared in our own founding documents to be the sovereign right of every human being. This was the path taken which allowed people to be owned by other people and treated in any way their owners so desired!
This country fought a civil war over this kind of thinking, a war which saw more of our citizens killed than any other war in our history. And the negative reverberations and ramifications of slavery are STILL affecting and tearing at the fabric of our nation’s soul. Why can’t reasonable people see this! I’m a Christian, but I don’t think this is just a religious question, it’s a question of what is best for the present and future health of our nation!
The effects of this legalized killing are at the core of our current economic troubles. I’ve been amazed that almost no-one is discussing the fact that Social Security, Medicare and other government social programs, are in trouble because they were designed to be supported by the taxes which came from those aborted children who never had the opportunity to grow up, become adult citizens, find employment and pay their taxes! With their financial support we wouldn’t be anywhere close the growing debt load which is slowly suffocating our free system!
Even if you take religion completely out of the picture it is clear that as a nation we are slitting our own throats and assuming everything will be just fine somehow. We are the passengers on the Titanic eating, dancing and celebrating while the ship is taking us to our death!
I don’t understand why reasonable people, religious or not, don’t see these facts and take action for even the selfish reason of protecting their own future! More Americans need to stand in the gap and call for change which restores us to sanity, civility and full humanity!
God help us come to our senses!
Hi Randy, Like it or not, I think a lot of people really don’t care about children. I know that blogs I write about dogs and cats get a lot more attention than the ones I write about children. It’s hard to raise kids and our families are so torn up that even talking about kids is painful. We like to think that child abuse is uncommon but it is very common. If we want to end it, we’re going to have to take time to look deeply into our attitudes toward children. Victims of abuse also, have to acknowledge what happened to them and take the responsibility to heal themselves and give their children the love and support they never had.
I’d like to think that slavery is over but slavery is at an all time high in the U.S. today and children are often the ones who are enslaved by human traffickers that use them in the sex trade industry. This kind of slavery is enven more degrading and dehumanizing than what African Americans and Native Americans endured in our nation’s past.
I don’t think politicians will ever do anything to change abortion laws as long as they can make a political football out of it and maintain it as a plank in their platform. We who love children and value human life have to work to create the kind of moral atmosphere that will make abortion and the devaluing of children abhorent to the majority. We have an uphill climb ahead of us but with God’s help it can be accomplished. It was no different when people insisted that African Americans and Native Americans weren’t quite human. Devaluing human beings is a moral problem that requires a moral solution. We are on God’s side in this and if God is for us, who can stand against us?
Thanks for commenting, Randy and for caring about children.
Pam