Abortion—Whose Rights Are Involved?
MEDICAL doctors P. M. A. Nicholls and Carlos del Campo of Halifax, Nova Scotia, wrote a revealing letter to the Canadian Medical Association Journal on the matter of whose rights are involved in abortion. They noted first that others have said that “the decision whether to have an abortion rests primarily with the woman,” and that “many women seeking an abortion and most proabortion groups believe that the woman has the right to decide the fate of her own ‘body’ and that abortion is permissible on these grounds.” However, the following observations these doctors made give a person reason to pause and consider.
“Although it should be obvious to all physicians, the following is not usually considered and should be stressed. Following fertilization the haploid cells fuse into a diploid cell. From this point onward the fetus exists as an entity genetically distinct from the mother; that is, it contains unique, organized chromosomal information. Irrefutable proof of this lies in the fact that were it not for the placental barrier acute rejection would occur.
“How is it, then, that we treat abortion as we do the removal of an appendix, a gallbladder or some other organ? (Of course, we are aware of the greater psychologic consequences of abortion.) Ironically, it is much easier to have an obstetrician remove a viable fetus than to have a surgeon agree to remove a healthy gallbladder. Yet, unlike the fetus, that organ is undoubtedly a part of the patient. Can we accept the common proabortion ‘my body’ attitude and agree that the decision to terminate fetal life rests between a woman and her physician? Again, if we examine this logically it is not, in fact, the woman’s body at issue but an undeniably separate life with an independent genetic code.”
In conclusion these doctors cautioned: “When confronted with this issue it is easier to disregard what we know to be true for the sake of convenience or ‘compassion.’ Nevertheless, it is the duty of every physician to avoid succumbing to or hiding behind the opinion and beliefs of an increasingly permissive society.”
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