As I said there are many pro-choice supporters in Ireland and if these people would like to have an abortion they often travel to the U.K where they can have this performed free, this happens everyday and neither the Irish or U.K governments try to prevent this.
The Catholic Church is very strictly against abortion but people argue that an abortion is not taking away a human life because the fertilised egg has not yet become a person although the Church argues this fact and claims that an egg becomes a human from the moment of conception, I have to agree with this. When I look at it logically the fertilised egg is just a very young person, although scientifically it has no organs or intelligence but in my mind should be considered a human and come under the protection of the law both in the U.K and Ireland.
Current U.K law dictates that the fertilised egg does not become a human until it is twenty-four weeks of age and that it is legal to abort the pregnancy although I can see the government's point I do not agree with it. There is a very valid point that the pregnancy takes place in the woman's body and so it should be her choice, the Catholic Church and at times the fathers do not agree with this.
Scientists argue that the unborn foetus does not experience any pain. This argument is strongly counter-argued by many other scientists and anti-abortion people. I strongly feel that it is inhuman to put an innocent and unprotected 'child' through any sort of pain unless it is totally necessary for the health of the mother or the baby.
Doctors have a quite high success rate at finding diseases in unborn children or possible difficulties for mother or child during pregnancy. At times it can be shown that it is likely that either the mother or child will die during birth or one will be incapable of living a 'fulfilled' life. It is hard to argue with a mother's decision to have an abortion in any of these instances all we can do is offer advice although I maintain my pro-life stance.
We must also think about the mental health of both mother and child. It may be found that the unborn child is mentally handicapped. The mother than has three options: have an abortion, give birth and care for the child or give birth and put the child in care. This of course is the mother's choice and all the three options are strongly argued and I am not sure which option I support. Then we have to take into account the mother's mental health, birth can be very traumatic especially if a woman has been raped, the child can sometimes only serve as a reminder of the great crime committed against the mother. Sometimes the mother cannot bear to give birth, others refuse to keep the child but many families raise the child as their own and is the option supported by most Christian churches.
It is the Christian Church's teaching that a mother should not abort even in this situation but in modern day society it seems acceptable for a mother to abort the pregnancy.
Adoption may be a solution to many of these problems but there are huge numbers of couples who cannot produce a child crying out to adopt, many of these couples would make good loving parents and give a child a very good home.
I think it is quite unfair and illogical that an unborn child's life can be terminated without its consent whereas a person of sound mind who wants to die is not allowed. This is ironic because in many cases when a person wishes to commit euthanasia it is because they are not going to live a fulfilled life, in most cases of abortion the terminated child would have lived a fulfilled life, to me this does not make sense. I have heard the argument that the government does not wish to pay for a child's education and do not wish to lose the men and women they have already educated and skilled. This is an extraordinary argument but could prove to be valid.
In some countries euthanasia and assisted euthanasia has been legalised although it tends to undergo strict government control, one West European country that has legalised euthanasia is Holland and has received extremely little foreign criticism. One of the main arguments against legalised euthanasia is that it may get out of control; it would be very hard and expensive for the government to decide on who qualifies for euthanasia and who doesn't. My own opinion is that a person should be allowed to die a dignified death but this is not the teaching of the Christian Churches they seem sure that it is never right to take another human's life.
I find it impossible to form an opinion on whether euthanasia is right or wrong. But I do believe strongly that it isn't right to take another human's life whether it be war, abortion or euthanasia.
