By Rohinee Charles

A professor in a college ethics class presented his students with a problem. He said, “A man has syphilis and his wife has tuberculosis. They have four children: one has died; the second one is born deaf, the third one is blind and the fourth suffers from tuberculosis. The mother is pregnant again. What do you recommend?”

Now-a-days abortion has become a trend and a norm of life. If we don’t want the unborn child, we go and get it aborted. Even the Government approves of it so that it can curtail the country’s population. ‘It is estimated that 40 to 60 million abortions take place during a year in the world. In India, it is estimated that about 6 million abortions take place every year, of which 2 million are spontaneous and 4 million are induced. Of the induced abortions, nearly 5 to 6 lakhs are legal and the rest are estimated to be illegal abortions’ -Dr. M.C. Kapilashrami (NIHFW).

The question is how we define abortion. According to the Webster’s Dictionary, it is the removal of an embryo or foetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy. In medical terms, abortion is the termination of pregnancy at any time before the foetus has attained the stage of viability. In other words, we could also say that it is a fashioned butchery of the modern life style.

There are many reasons for abortion. We sometimes abort because we are unwed mothers, or we did not plan to have a baby right then in our life or the doctor has told us that our unborn child is going to have some kind of congenital deformity. So what do we do? Do we play ‘God’ and decide to abort or do we go on with the pregnancy? Does our conscience prick us?

“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.... And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? So, how do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? Therefore, a mother who is thinking of abortion should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love but kills even her own child to solve her problems.” –Mother Teresa. Although an expectant mother undergoes pain while giving birth, yet there is joy on her face when she holds her new born in her loving arms. If it’s an unwanted child, the parents should be encouraged to give for adoption rather than to abort. They should be made aware of reliable family planning methods.

As salt has the quality to preserve, it is used as a preservative. In the same way, we need to preserve our moral values. The world takes the broad path—the easy way out. But we need to take the narrow path. Of course, taking the narrow path is difficult but it preserves life. We can always make a difference. Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, so why not preserve it and apply it in their profession. If we flow below the standards of the world, the world will punish us and if we flow above the standards of the world, the world will persecute us. Are we ready to live an uncompromising life?

Let’s come back to the question posed at the beginning- what would you recommend? Should the mother continue with her pregnancy? The students replied that the unborn child should be aborted. ‘Fine’, said the professor, ‘you have just killed Beethoven.’ Imagine how many Beethoven’s we are killing!

Here is a beautiful song of an unborn child pleading his mother to let him live.