Outrageous!
Oct. 8th, 2008 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladydraceI'm not usually the type to get easily wound up about some topic in the news or similar. But I've just had 2 serious cases of outrage in as many days.
First there was the news that the Danish law about abortion may be changed so that pregnancies could be legally terminated all the way to week 18 opposed to the current week 12. Even bigger was my shock when I found out that many other countries already have later limits, so many women from Denmark simply go abroad if they have their application for a late abortion denied. Maybe I'm just being frumpy here, but jeez... an 18 week old baby is just that... a baby! Not some sort of primordial ooze or halfway developed mammal mostly resembling a fish... no. By 18 weeks, it's a baby. On a scan you can see its gender and some women can feel it kicking. See an ultrasound picture here and a full week by week series of scans here.
Now I know there are good reasons why they want to move the limit. Some scans for birth defects and such can only be made later in the pregnancy. But I'm sorry to say on this point I'm rather pig-headed. Yes, I think it's fair enough if you feel you can't handle a disabled baby and decide to terminate. It's every woman's right. But still I think we need to set the limit somewhere for how late you can make your choice. I mean you can never really know until the baby is born how it's gonna turn out. Even with all scans, tests, examinations and so on, you ALWAYS run the risk of having a baby with special needs. It's a risk from the moment you decide to have a baby. If you can't handle that risk at all, don't have kids. Or adopt. Or foster. There are so many children in the world that needs nothing more special than loving parents.
And my second outrage from this morning, very much along the same lines...
Baby Borrowers. Feel free to grind your teeth. I sure as hell did...
First there was the news that the Danish law about abortion may be changed so that pregnancies could be legally terminated all the way to week 18 opposed to the current week 12. Even bigger was my shock when I found out that many other countries already have later limits, so many women from Denmark simply go abroad if they have their application for a late abortion denied. Maybe I'm just being frumpy here, but jeez... an 18 week old baby is just that... a baby! Not some sort of primordial ooze or halfway developed mammal mostly resembling a fish... no. By 18 weeks, it's a baby. On a scan you can see its gender and some women can feel it kicking. See an ultrasound picture here and a full week by week series of scans here.
Now I know there are good reasons why they want to move the limit. Some scans for birth defects and such can only be made later in the pregnancy. But I'm sorry to say on this point I'm rather pig-headed. Yes, I think it's fair enough if you feel you can't handle a disabled baby and decide to terminate. It's every woman's right. But still I think we need to set the limit somewhere for how late you can make your choice. I mean you can never really know until the baby is born how it's gonna turn out. Even with all scans, tests, examinations and so on, you ALWAYS run the risk of having a baby with special needs. It's a risk from the moment you decide to have a baby. If you can't handle that risk at all, don't have kids. Or adopt. Or foster. There are so many children in the world that needs nothing more special than loving parents.
And my second outrage from this morning, very much along the same lines...
Baby Borrowers. Feel free to grind your teeth. I sure as hell did...
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-08 08:17 pm (UTC)What worries me is not as much the possibility of terminating a pregnancy at 18 weeks if there's good reason. What worries me is that they want the law changed so you don't even need special permit. They want it to be available to all, so even if you suddenly decide you don't want it anyway, you can just go and have it removed.
I want a limit there. And I'm not saying the law is perfect as it is now. Not at all. There have been some really screwed up rejections to some applications I've heard of, where I can hardly blame the parents for taking their cause abroad.
No, the thing that gets me really concerned is the 'trend' of sorts going on in this country. Not only are abortions more and more commonplace, they are also excecuted later and later. And for the most screwed up reasons. A survey showed that over 50% of the people applying for a later abortion used reasons such as: Not enough time/money, broken relationship and so on. (I haven't been able to find any english sources for this sadly. I'll keep looking)If the government opens up on this, I'm afraid it's not gonna stop. I have the horror vision in my head where a mom pops out her baby and goes: "Nah, I don't like its eyes. Kill it."
Going to extremes, I know, but that's where my mind takes me on this.
About the TV show:
Reality TV has never been my cup of tea anyway, and this only confirms my general idea that it's a fucked up idea. (Even made me use the F-word) Survivor, Big Brother, American Idol... whatever! It's still entertainment based on real people going through real pain. Yes, pain. So a few people come out as winners, but mostly it's people going through a lot of crazy and painful stuff for a few minutes of fame. To put it bluntly, I call it prostitution of the mind.
Even the Japanese idea of weird challenging game shows makes more sense to me than this. At least they all seem to be grinning like maniacs even as their diving into goo or being nibbled on by rabid rainworms or whatever.
End rant.
no subject
Date: 2008-10-09 06:31 am (UTC)And why real babies when there are excellent mechanical babies made for this exact purpose? For teaching how to take care of a baby with no donger to real infants. The only reason for bringing the real babies into the equation is the entertainment value. And frankly THAT makes me sick to my stomach. Babies are NOT for entertainment.