I'm railing against my own today.
Conservative law makers in Arizona tend to be extreme on immigration, and now they're extreme on th pro-life issue. You'd think I'd welcome this, and I would if they were extreme only in their desire to end the practice of abortion through honest means (For example, saying they want to outlaw it, and attempting to do so).
Instead they've passed a series of troubling bills that I'm only just learning about and if my initial impressions of them are correct, I'm hereby publicly condemning them as intellectually dishonest, and even morally unacceptable laws.
For time's sake, I'll only focus on the biggest doozy. Arizona has passed a "Wrongful birth, wrongful life" law (which by the way is already law in nine other states). In this law, a doctor is given immunity from being sued if he withholds information from the parents about their unborn child that might cause them to seek an abortion.
I don't even know where to begin with this one but here goes.
1. A child born with a disability or disease ABSOLUTELY has the same right to life as one born without those things. But a parent has a moral and legal right to know the status of their unborn child's health regardless of how that will effect their intentions.
2. Withholding the information will put the parents at a disadvantage when they could have spent the last nine months preparing for their special needs child, emotionally, financially and as far as any home care needs.
3. It's just bull. I appreciate the sentiment, I do. Trying to save more kids from the evil of abortion is good. But ends do NOT justify the means in my understanding of the world.
I want to see the practice of abortions ended, but I don't want to screw around with it. On most issues, I advocate changing people's hearts and minds, and then changing the laws. However, on some issues the laws must change first because of the urgency of the situation. That's where I stand on abortion.
But we are full of crap if we think that allowing a doctor to lie, even by omission, to those in their care is a step in a good direction. It isn't.
I agree. Not a good precedent to set. Seems like something of a carte blanche for potentially corrupt doctors to withhold information, for whatever reason - free from legal consequences.
ReplyDeleteI've never been on the pro-life side, always leaning pro-choice instead. I appreciate heavily that you understand that particular law is dangerous. I'm not one to wish for any abortion, but this law is certainly not helpful. The idea alone that a doctor can withhold information from a patient based on assumptions that the info may lead to an abortion is crazy. You're very right, this will mostly harm parents who want to be prepared for their children's lives, and will suddenly find they weren't prepared.
ReplyDeleteAlso I don't know how vague the law is, but what about endangering the life of the mother? Is a doctor allowed to keep information like that to themselves because sadly it may mean the child might not be born. Information has to be shared.
That's also a very good point about the life of the mother. If the law is worded in that way, it's another problem.
ReplyDelete