When I was a fetus, I loved dill pickle ice cream

CERC ^ | 01.22.06 | Dr. Dave Hepburn

[Coleus]

For some doctors the issue of abortion is simple. Their response to this ethical dilemma is to send every girl who believes she wants an abortion to the local abortionist and let them work it out. Easy case. Others wrestle with each case individually and set up a counseling process. Others still are uncomfortable being involved in the abortion process for any reason other than the most dire. It is in that latter pool that I have come to swim and possibly drown.  

I recently attended a conference of the Canadian Physicians for Life because... well I'm Canadian, I enjoy Life and I play a Physician on Thursdays between 9 and 11.

I was impressed with the dignity, concern and thoughtfulness that was evident at the conference, at least prior to my arrival.

For some doctors the issue of abortion is simple. Their response to this ethical dilemma is to send every girl who believes she wants an abortion to the local abortionist and let them work it out. Easy case. Others wrestle with each case individually and set up a counseling process. Others still are uncomfortable being involved in the abortion process for any reason other than the most dire. It is in that latter pool that I have come to swim and possibly drown. 

Given the back and forth from assorted lobby groups it may be difficult to develop an informed opinion on this sensitive issue but, given the unexpectedness with which your opinion may be required, it is important that you form your own opinion, and that it be exactly the same as mine.

Q: Shouldn't, as Morgentaler says, every child be a wanted child?

A: Every child is wanted. Every pregnancy is not. Thousands of couples spend thousands of dollars to adopt thousands of children from East Yaopingyanski. Doctors constantly receive requests from those who would love the opportunity to raise a child. Every child is wanted... by someone.

Q: What about a woman's right to do with her body as she pleases?

A: It is against the law for a woman to sell her body or do certain things to or with it. But a growing fetus is, in fact, not her body. It has its own distinct DNA, it has its own genomic character. An appendix or a toenail is part of our body but a fetus is a distinct society. My mother likes rutabaga and tofu but as a young fetus (don't we all miss those halcyon days) I rejected that stuff being rammed through my bellybutton and made it known I needed dill pickle ice cream and peanut buster parfaits with ketchup. We were and are different, genomically and gastronomically speaking.

Q. But a fetus is not a fully developed human being.

A. Fetus is from the Latin for "young child." After 12 weeks nothing new develops in a fetus, it has everything in place. From there it simply matures. Two year olds are no less human than the more developed five year olds. They are just meaner. 

Q: But being pregnant can be an inconvenience that causes stretch marks and personally I just spent thousands for implants so it isn't a good time for me to... 

A. Listen Q, I remember you before implants, when you were just a little q. You were OK, er... ok. But yes, this is among the many reasons we hear why a woman wants an abortion.

Q. What is a partial birth abortion? Is this for real?

A. I would suggest that if you want to know how you really feel about abortion, go to any website that describes partial birth abortion. If that doesn't put goose bumps on your goose bumps then nothing in this column will make any difference to you.

As many doctors wrestle with our stewardship to the expectant mother I can't help but be concerned with the lack of concern for the unborn child that has too often turned an ethical decision into a mere gynecological inconvenience. What's the answer? I don't know but I suspect it must involve dill pickle ice cream.

Dr. Dave Hepburn is a B.C. physician and guest speaker whose column appears weekly in the Unwind section of the Vancouver Province. E-mail him questions at drdave@png.canwest.com

[SampleMan]

I'm pro-choice. Let the baby decide. If it reaches outside, grabs a knife and a stabs itself to death, it wants to die.

[Clemenza]

I was in Kelowna, British Columbia back in October. I have never seen so many pro-life billboards in Canada.

The pro-life movement north of the border is about 20 years behind ours. It is growing, something that can't be said for the pro-death forces.

[cgk]

Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping!

Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping list...

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Petronski]

Look at this pic!

Coleus is the best.

[cgk]

:)

[skr]

Awwwwwww!

[MHGinTN]

Thank you for the ping. Permit me to add a small bit to this excellent offering.

"Others still are uncomfortable being involved in the abortion process for any reason other than the most dire." And that begs the question that, if this really is a matter of freedom of choice, why is there such an oppression to force those not comfortable with the killing of alive unborn human beings into serving the slaughter in clinics and through pharmacies?

The good doctor didn't mention this but it is relevant to the overall debates on nascent life: from conception onward, for the entire lifetime, sans organ transplants for life support, it is the newly conceived individual human whom builds all the necessary organs for his or her own survival, first in the water world of a petri dish and or a woman's body, then in the air world of physicians and abortionists. None of the first organ--the placenta and umbilicus and amniotic sac--is made by the mother but is constructed by the new human living a lifetime. So few actually know that basic fact regarding the mammalian lifetime begun at conception.