Comments on: More Americans Are Pro-Life http://johnfullerblog.com/2009/06/01/more-americans-are-pro-life/ John Fuller's Blog Fri, 18 May 2012 06:00:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Robert http://johnfullerblog.com/2009/06/01/more-americans-are-pro-life/#comment-3164 Robert Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:05:47 +0000 http://johnfullerblog.com/?p=1072#comment-3164 In this two part conversation, one of the priests -- I didn't catch his name, said that there was one difficult question in the same-sex marriage debate: "How will allowing gays and lesbians to marry affect my marriage?" Even many Christians, the priest said, do not have an answer to that question. I was pleased to hear the priest make that point, because I, myself, don't have an answer to the question, and it is difficult for me to get concerned about same-sex marriage. Abortion is a more difficult issue for me. The priest suggested that there is no similarly difficult question with respect to abortion, but I think there is, and I'll begin with an example: A couple of years ago, one of my students and his wife were expecting a baby. Genetic tests identified one of those chromosome 21 problems, not Down syndrome, but, I think, Edwards syndrome, where the survival rates are very, very low. The parents decided to have the baby and my student dropped out of school for a semester to be with the family. The child was born, the parents gave him every bit of love that they had, and he died after about 90 days. I admire their decision to have the baby, and try not to think about how much he had to suffer during his short life. Edwards syndrome is not a pleasant condition. So, the difficult question in the abortion debate is this one: "If the decision whether to have the child was not for the parents to make, who should make it?" In this two part conversation, one of the priests — I didn’t catch his name, said that there was one difficult question in the same-sex marriage debate: “How will allowing gays and lesbians to marry affect my marriage?” Even many Christians, the priest said, do not have an answer to that question. I was pleased to hear the priest make that point, because I, myself, don’t have an answer to the question, and it is difficult for me to get concerned about same-sex marriage.

Abortion is a more difficult issue for me. The priest suggested that there is no similarly difficult question with respect to abortion, but I think there is, and I’ll begin with an example:

A couple of years ago, one of my students and his wife were expecting a baby. Genetic tests identified one of those chromosome 21 problems, not Down syndrome, but, I think, Edwards syndrome, where the survival rates are very, very low. The parents decided to have the baby and my student dropped out of school for a semester to be with the family. The child was born, the parents gave him every bit of love that they had, and he died after about 90 days.

I admire their decision to have the baby, and try not to think about how much he had to suffer during his short life. Edwards syndrome is not a pleasant condition.

So, the difficult question in the abortion debate is this one: “If the decision whether to have the child was not for the parents to make, who should make it?”

]]> By: Fred http://johnfullerblog.com/2009/06/01/more-americans-are-pro-life/#comment-3157 Fred Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:14:45 +0000 http://johnfullerblog.com/?p=1072#comment-3157 A recent event off the east cost of Florida where I live saw a boat from Haiti capsize and nine people died. What was interesting to me was the media found out a day or two later that one of those who died was pregnant. They then revived their death list to ten. With all the talk of the fetus not being a being until birth I found their response very interesting. A recent event off the east cost of Florida where I live saw a boat from Haiti capsize and nine people died. What was interesting to me was the media found out a day or two later that one of those who died was pregnant. They then revived their death list to ten. With all the talk of the fetus not being a being until birth I found their response very interesting.

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