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Disclaimer: The opinions stated in this piece are not necessarily the opinions of Maryland Students for Life. We provide this article as an educational aid for pro-life interests but do not imply official endorsement of the author's views. For more information on our stances, see the About Us page.

Nov 23, 2004 - The Diamondback opinion page
Suzanne Farhood
Give the unborn the choice of life

Imagine the following scenario: You are a woman pregnant with
twins, but you suddenly miscarry one of them You have been
bedridden for six months. The doctors say you will not survive
the birth of the second baby. If you do not have an abortion,
the best you can hope for is a stillbirth or for the baby to
be a vegetable her whole life. In addition, you have a
disorder that leaves your baby with a 75 percent chance of
mental retardation. What decision would you make?

This may be a mere story to you, but to me it means
everything. The mother in the story could not fathom how she
had the right to take her baby's life, even at the expense of
her own. This doomed baby girl was born perfectly healthy and,
incidentally, with a remarkable talent for singing and
dancing. This girl, Colleen, who almost never existed, is a
very close friend of mine and I thank her mother that she so
selflessly chose life.

I realize this is a somewhat rare and extreme case, but we can
still apply it to other situations, such as rape. If the woman
should conceive, some would automatically turn to abortion.
Keep in mind, though, that the baby is not the criminal. The
rapist is the enemy - why must the unborn child die for the
crime the father has committed?

In the way rape is a violent crime perpetrated on an innocent
victim, so is the abortion of an unplanned child. Regardless
of the circumstances of conception, every human being has an
inalienable right to live. How can we take this most basic and
important right away from anyone? Abortion is often considered
the solution to the woman's problem - that her grief will be
taken away. Why must we add to the violence already committed
against the woman? (For those of you who say abortion is not
violence, please take the time to Google it).

We live in a democracy. As such, important decisions are voted
on. I sincerely wish, in our society that supports abortion
rights, the unborn were given a choice. Before any abortion, I
wish we could ask, "Little child, may I kill you?" The answer
would come swiftly, "Yes, I choose death," or "No, I choose life."

When an unborn child is doomed to disability or retardation,
the "humane" option is to prevent it from living a life of
misery. I challenge you to approach any mentally retarded
person and say, "Do you wish your mother had killed you before
you were born?" I doubt one such disabled person would
consider death "the humane option." To kill a child because he
or she will be disabled expresses an immense intolerance
against the disabled. It sends a message to them that they are
better off dead than alive and their lives are worth nothing.

To everyone who has ever said it would be better to abort a
child than to allow him or her to grow up in poverty, how dare
you decide for someone else whether he wishes to live? Living
in poverty is not ideal, but reducing the number of poor
people will never fix the problem. Abortion attempts to
replace the need for social reform, which is another issue.
Would you want your life to be stolen away merely because of
your living conditions?

To everyone who says the unborn are not human, I challenge you
to open a biology textbook. Scientifically, life begins at the
moment of conception. And the species? Human. Because it
contains human DNA, it will never be anything but human. To
say it is OK to kill an unborn child because brain waves can't
be measured until eight weeks is stripping the child of his
human identity. There is no question that abortion kills a
life, and that life is human.

You may say to yourself, "That is all well and good, but what
would I do with a baby?" An unwanted baby to one person may be
the most precious gift to another. For every infant available
for adoption, there are 40 couples waiting to adopt. There are
dozens of crisis pregnancy clinics available in the College
Park and Washington area that will provide adoption support,
parenting classes, counseling and information about abortion
that abortion clinics refuse to tell you. You can find a
clinic online at www.pregnancycenters.org. To write to
Colleen, the "vegetable" who will one day be on Broadway,
e-mail c.prior@umiami.edu.

A third of our generation has already been wiped out. Choose life.

Suzanne Farhood - junior biological sciences major.

Used by permission.

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