Since my previous talks with all of you on this fine website, I’ve been doing some thinking. A lot of thinking. As some of you may remember, our previous discussion on here involved the topic of abortion. During this discussion, I asked those who disagreed with my view to not debate with me, and for the most part, you did that quite well. A few of you, however, managed to get in a few thinly-veiled shots at my position, which was then pro-life. Those comments really got me thinking. They were the first true seeds of doubt implanted into my mind about my position on abortion. The following days I was near obsessed with the topic. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I was experiencing an internal conflict between my preexisting beliefs and what I now know to be undeniable logic. This battle went on and on and on.
One day, as I was out walking, I wasn’t paying attention to the world around me whatsoever. I was thinking about abortion. I passed a woman carrying a baby, going in the opposite direction. Out of nowhere, the little wretch let out a blood-curdling cry, and I was startled out of my reverie. As I quickly looked around me, trying to ascertain exactly how far I had walked, I noticed a car. This car had a bumper sticker. The bumper sticker read, quite simply, “If you don’t like abortion, then don’t have one.” This platitude really resonated with me, and I had an epiphany right then and there. I realized that the bumper sticker was right. I really had no right to enforce my opinions and morality on someone else. I should keep my beliefs to myself, and live my life the way I want, and let others live their lives the way they want. This sudden realization rocked the whole foundation of my life.
I began to apply this mantra to other areas of my life as well. The very next day, for example, I noticed that a friend of mine was cheating off of my paper during a test. Before, I would have covered up my paper so as to not let him cheat, but I now realized that it was his decision to make, not mine, so I pretended not to notice and continued on with my test. About a week later, I noticed a different friend of mine take a couple $20 bills out of our teacher’s desk, when our teacher had left for the bathroom. Previously I would have told the teacher, upon his return, what my friend had done. But now I realized that I had absolutely no right to do this. My friend’s morality might be completely different than mine, and to him, taking that money was probably perfectly fine. So I said nothing.
That same day, as I was walking home from school, I heard the sounds of a struggle from an alley nearby. I calmly walked over to peer in, and I saw a high school boy, about my age, raping a girl of about the same age. I felt rather sorry for the girl, and before my epiphany I would have done something to help, but then I realized that that just was not my place. There are many sides to one story, and I certainly didn’t know the whole story in this case. There are a myriad of different reasons that this boy might have chosen rape. For example, he might not have had sex in a long time and was just horny. Of course, I’ve never had sex in my whole life, and I’ve never resorted to rape, but just because I would never rape a girl doesn’t give me the right to force him to not rape this girl.
At around the same time, we began to learn about the antebellum era of American history in my AP US History class. I had always thought of slavery as a very evil concept, and I had always been glad that it has been abolished, a thought perpetuated by all of my previous history classes as well as this one. But I decided to look at the slavery issue at a new angle, in light of my recent epiphany. I realized that my new outlook could be applied to the slavery issue as well. Though the slavery issue may be finished business today, I know that if I had lived back then my position would have been: “If you don’t like slavery, then don’t own slaves.” This seems like the fairest position to me. It allows everybody to live according to their own morals without anyone’s interference. It’s a shame that the Union government didn’t feel the same way.
Despite the application of my new mantra on others areas of life, my main focus remained abortion. At first, I remained personally against abortion, but I accepted the right of women to do what they please in this regard. But, now that I was more open and accepting of abortion, I was able to remove my preexisting biases and understand the pro-choice side much more clearly. And my own opinion began to change for the better, yet again. I began to realize that not only was it fine for women to have abortions if they so choose, but that I also personally was fine with abortions. I realized that it is in fact perfectly moral for a woman to exercise control over the domain of her body, and expel her unwanted worthless fetal parasite, and that, as a man, I should encourage and even help women along in the process. The fetus, after all, is just a ball of cells, and even though that ball of cells does in fact contain unique human DNA, it doesn’t contain consciousness, and that’s obviously what really matters.
Even this change in opinion wasn’t enough to satisfy my mind, and I continued to be obsessed with abortion. I slowly became convinced that I wasn’t going far enough. I had already decided that true life begins at consciousness, and yet, newborn babies aren’t conscious or self-aware yet. Although I fought it at first, this eventually led me to the truth: Infanticide is okay. It makes sense when you think about it. Sometimes a mother might originally want to become a parent, but after the fetus is born she changes her mind. For example, something drastic could happen that would cut off her source of income, and a woman can’t be expected to raise a child without any income. So why shouldn’t she be able to terminate her motherhood if she so chooses? Now obviously we don’t know the exact date that an infant attains consciousness, and I’m sure that it varies, so I decided then that naturally we should set an arbitrary age up to which infanticide is allowable. And for a while this new opinion quelled my mind’s obsession with abortion.
About a week later, however, the thoughts flared up again. I started thinking about how consciousness defines true life, and I realized that this just does not make sense. Even if a human does not yet have consciousness, it will eventually have consciousness, so consciousness really can’t matter. And since we earlier established that it is fine for a mother to kill something that has unique human DNA, and since we now established that consciousness does not at all matter, I now contend that it is perfectly okay for a mother to terminate her own child at any age.
There are many reasons why this is allowable and even beneficial. Firstly, it gives relief to poor women who maybe can’t support as many children as they currently have. I mentioned earlier how an unexpected cut in a woman’s source of income is one of the reasons she may want to terminate her infant, but this unexpected cut in income might happen anytime, not just when her child is an infant. Now she can relieve herself of her burden when it is five, or fifteen, if she needs to at that time.
Secondly, it gives a woman true control over her own body. Earlier, when I realized the truth that a fetus is part of a woman’s body, rather than merely inside her body, I wondered exactly what changed at birth. Did something become chemically altered in the fetus’ DNA or elsewhere that made it become its own body? I asked this question to a doctor I know, and he assured me that that is not the case. This leads me to believe that children remain a part of their mother’s body even after birth, and the only real difference between them and their pre-birth selves is their location. This means that the right of a woman to terminate her parenthood at anytime is closely linked to her right to full control over her own body.
Thirdly, it prevents unruly children from becoming an undue burden to their parents. Nobody loves a brat, after all. In fact, I know a woman with this very problem. She always tells me about how her own children are so tough to get along with, and she wishes she could just stop being a parent. She is a very respectable woman, one of those radical feminists and a valiant fighter for women’s rights. I fully support her in her wish to terminate her children, and just one conversation with her will show you how much she deserves this right. She already owns her husband’s life, so why not her terrible children as well?
Fourthly, it is the most effective way to deal with unwanted children, at any age. With our current levels of promiscuous sex, unwanted children are on the rise, and both abortion and my idea are the best solution. And with our current adoption system broken and neither effective or enticing, the only possible way to solve this problem is through abortion and the termination of parenthood.
So, this basically outlines what I believe now. I’m proud of my newfound belief, and proud to say that I fight for the rights of women and people everywhere. I now know not to challenge the morality of others, and let them live as they please, especially women. I now know that in supporting the right to terminate parenthood, I am supporting the rights of women everywhere. I feel that I have become a new person after my epiphany. Beforehand I was judgmental and immoral, and I now believe that I understand morality better than most people. My experience has helped transform me into a good person.
There are two main reasons why I am telling all of you this. First, I want to thank those of you on here who insulted my former pro-life position. You set me on the path to becoming what I am now. Second, I’d like to ask for feedback. What do you think of my ideas? How might they be improved? Are there any reproductive rights for women that I may have forgotten about? I’d like to know, and I’d appreciate if you would tell me. Thank you.
A Diplomacy Game for Literature Lovers?
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