The dishonest rights of the unborn child

Conceiving the time of conception

I had to ask the question from a more practical perspective because I do believe we are being dogmatically conned with information that bares not basis in fact and reality.

I am sorry, that we hear something that strikes an emotive cord with conservative and religious connotations and fail to research the facts of those assertions and prove beyond debate if those views are true or just utter bunkum.

At the Saddleback Presidential Civil Forum, Pastor Rick Warren asked [1] John McCain, What point is a baby entitled to human rights? And he answered, "At the moment of conception," everyone applauded and I was quite befuddled by it all.

Do you know when?

So, I asked the lady who runs the African store above the Amsterdam Metro Station, if a woman knows that she is pregnant at 2 months gestation, to which she answered, the woman might be suspicious but cannot be definite [2] that she is pregnant as it is unlikely that she would have a bump as evidence of pregnancy

You mean, you cannot say that you have conceived [3] on the day that you had intercourse until such a time that it is obvious by missing periods first and then some sort of pregnancy test – that was in the affirmative.

So for 2 months, it is possible that we would have conferred on an embryo, foetus, baby or some non-descript feeling of unease and anatomical change human right whilst not being really sure it is there or not. Very interesting.

She even offered that when she was having her first child, at 6 months pregnancy the doctor said to her she had another unexplained ailment rather than the impending arrival of a child.

Naming the foetus

I felt, I could carry on this journey of the absurd, so when the bump is really so obvious you think at any moment you would be sequestered into midwifery have you ever asked the woman whilst the baby is still in the womb what the name of the baby is? She looked at me with incredulity.

Well, I was just trying to be logical here, there is probability that the unborn child might have rights it wants to exact from the womb just in case it needs to be identified in court.

It would appear that a child is not named until when it is out of the womb and that might depend on when during the gestation period it was born.

The rights as birth

For instance, I was born at 26 and half weeks, over 40 years ago, there was the possibility I would not thrive, in fact, doctors do not try to exercise the supposed right to live on a baby born at less than 21 weeks except in the most exceptional cases where faith, persistence and the sheer will to live of the child defies all medical science.

The issue of abortion allows for this absurd notion of unborn child rights to take prominence where reason should inform us of better arguments for sustaining the life of an unborn child.

I am of the opinion that a women should be able to decide within the first trimester of a pregnancy that she might only have confirmed from about the sixth week if she wants to keep the changes that are occurring in her or not.

Between rights and moral duty of humanity

There are all sorts of reasons why a woman with or without the consent of a partner, with the advice of her doctor and possibly matters of conscience why a woman would decide to terminate a pregnancy. I do not believe they take those issues lightly at all because there can be serious consequences as physical leading to barrenness or emotional scars that could be impossible manage despite the passage of time.

There might be some women, who have turned terminations into a routine, but they can hardly be in any majority and they probably have their reasons.

However, I do not think that the issue at stake for an unborn child is that of rights because it would portend to separate the entity of the conception, embryo and foetus from the person of the body that provides it nourishment.

It would be interesting if medical science offered the means to prevent the nourishment of a child through the umbilical cord by the accident of medical contra-indications whether there can be a legal premise for the unborn child to seek compulsory nourishment because of where it resides before birth.

The matter really is one of our humanity rather than one of legality; we have reached a point in our civilization where we believe we owe that developing child a burden of care or careful nourishment and an adjusted lifestyle.

Conducive conditions for birth

Where we believe that bearing the child would be a source of joy and there is love around to cater for the upbringing of that child.

Where the act of conception whenever it might have happened is through the consent of the parties involved such that neither sees the product from a perspective of revulsion created by the violation of the body.

Where all things are equal, laws protecting the rights of the unborn child are redundant because it would be brought into a loving, caring and welcoming situation.

Unfortunately, things are not as perfect as one would expect for everyone and those situations do need to be dealt with on their merits through famous trilogy of stakeholders as enumerated by Senator John Kerry years ago – it should be between the woman, her doctor and her God.

Thriving on the compassion of society

After the first trimester, the unborn child is probably going to thrive and be born, whilst medical science can allow for abortions up to term, society frowns on issues where after the well into the second trimester the pregnancy is terminated.

At the point, one can see the possibility of acts criminal, not so much for sake of the unborn child but the reasons that society and medical science have tacitly agreed that after a particular period, the pregnancy should be brought to term.

In many cases, these are moral and medical dilemmas, it would be perilous for us to legislate on moral dilemmas where clear codes of conduct based on the expectation of a civilized society should suffice.

What we owe the unborn child

I think it is utter dishonest to suggest that an unborn child has rights at conception when the exact time of conception cannot be determined until well after other events have passed, which could be well into gestation.

In all, we owe the unborn child the duty of care and for those who are expecting the best wishes for a safe delivery, beyond that, those who do not want or need a baby should either abstain or use contraception.

I cannot begin to imagine the legal minefield that can be opened into the legality and legal status of the unborn child to sue for its rights to be established from the question of paternity, a conducive environment for birth, the right of the pregnant woman to refuse to continue to carry the child as opposed to the supposed undeniable right of the child to nourished whilst still in the womb.

I would contend reason and counsel should prevail in these matters rather than try to legalise moral issues that would convert our courts into grotesque theatres of the most absurd activities of humankind.

For all intents and purposes, an unborn child cannot have rights at conception, the person carrying that developing miracle simply owes themselves that that bundle of joy the greatest duty of care, if that is what they wished for and have settled on the idea of parenthood.

Sources

[1] CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL - Saddleback Presidential Candidates Forum – Transcript

[2] From Conception to Birth - A Foetal Growth Timeline – Expectant Mothers Guide

[3] Baby planning time - Understanding conception

Amilia against all odds

A dearly beloved soul mate

The miracle baby they call her as her parents arrived to collect her from hospital today, but she is to be kept back for a few more days. [1][2]

A kindred spirit with myself when 41 years ago, auspiciously today, my parents also arrived to pick me up, I came in at 26 ½ weeks, she came in at just over 21 weeks, usually not an age at which doctors expect the baby to thrive.

Well, something medicine and people are yet to understand is the fact that the will to live is a highly developed desire and determination to stay alive against all odds.

Fighter indeed she is

Baby Amilia - meaning fighter and hardworker - is a survivor born to upset the apple cart of convention and bring us to rethink any number of issues about the medical survival of the foetus.

With time we have learnt that babies born at progressively decreasing gestation periods down to about 23 weeks have the possibility of thriving, though there is concern about longer term development - in my case, I started walking quite late at over 18 months and then there minor problems with my sight.

We have also learnt that the foetus can feel pain at an earlier age than the 29 weeks that doctors thought possible.

I was expected March the 19^th 1966 at the earliest for a full term baby, I was delivered of my claustrophic recluse on the 21^st of December the year before, she was born on the 24^th of October 2006.

Outlaw abortion over 20 weeks

Another thing is the issue of abortion, whilst I am liberally of the view that this decision should be between the woman, her doctor and her God, conscience or conviction, aborting a foetus at over 20 weeks borders on the sacrilegious.

How is it after carrying the baby for at least 10 weeks and noticing the differences to the body and mind a decision is left in abeyance until well into the fifth month of gestation, just over half the gestation period?

In other affairs of life, it is unlikely that people spend that much time making decisions of medical importance, if an operation is scheduled as critical; you go in and sort it out pronto.

If a pregnancy is inimical to your health and well-being, you get it sorted before the baby begins to develop form, character and poise, especially with the advances in ultrasound.

We, the early ones have rights to live

And so for those unborn who like me arrived a lot earlier than expected, having hardly fitted into the palm of the hand and were more survivors dependent on the will to live and answered prayer than the grudging confidence of medical science; abortion at over 20 weeks might as well be murder, more proof is developing to the fact that this is patently unacceptable.

Baby Amilia, you are welcome and we all born premature but now maturing in strength, wealth, knowledge, wisdom and purpose in life wish you the best of good health, great strength and magnificent success beyond just being the joy of your parents but a worthy contributor to the earth that needs to see more miracles that defy science and popularly accepted opinion.

[1] Miracle baby homecoming delayed

[2] Premature baby to stay for checks

Time to learn to feel our pain - April 2006

Time to learn to feel our pain

Early out and doing well

As I have said before, I have always wondered if enough research is being done about how early-term and premature babies grow up and thrive as adults.

I know a few years ago, the BBC showcased a number of babies who were born in 1995 at less than 25 weeks to see how they got on in their tenth year.

The results were almost depressing when it transpired that only one of that group had fully matured to expected development as would be observed in full-term births.

In my case, being born at 26 weeks 40 years ago in the West Midlands, I sometimes consider it a miracle that I not only survived but thrived. In 40 years of study and analysis it is considered that below 24 weeks it is difficult to offer any hope of thriving to births still within the second trimester.

Learning recently that an astigmatic condition could have been corrected in childhood is one of those things, but there is more to life than a lazy eye.

However, this topic reared its head when I commented on the topic of abortion on Naijablog and the writer opined about the feelings of foetuses and their ability to feel pain.

A commenting contributor suggested based on some study highlighted on the BBC web site that foetuses do not feel pain till at least the 29th week of gestation.

Naturally, I rubbished that report, bunkum!, I said; not because I could remember the circumstances and my feelings at birth, but because the medical personnel then took the duty of care to handle me with such fragility as I was transferred from Manor Maternity Home in Walsall to Marston Green Hospital in Birmingham for 2 months of incubation.

Feel my pain

If I had no feelings of pain or emotion at the time of birth, I could as well have been considered dead. Well, that was hardly two days ago.

Then this morning, I heard on the news that scientists now think foetuses can feel pain from about 24 weeks if not earlier. If only they could ask those emerging bundles of joy how they felt.

It might change the whole debate on abortion and the destruction of life in the womb, but that is not crux of my blog today.

Rather, it is about applying better study and research techniques to understanding how we are formed in the womb and why it is that some do come rather early and others very late.

Once again, the unnecessary dilemma might also be the question of passage of time. Does a pre-term baby have a shorter biorhythm cycle that a full term or fuller term baby?

I am still looking for reasons why an occupational therapist suggested I was suffering the classic symptoms of a mid-life crisis at 33. I am way past that now and enjoying the new things I am doing.

I do not know if this area of study is the bailiwick of obstetrics, paediatrics or some other branch of medicine or mechanics, for all I care, the claustrophobia of the womb is hard enough, find out about our pain better before you try those nasty tools on us.

I speak for all of us who came in early for one reason or the other.