Thoughts on Ending a Pregnancy

All the arguments made against ending pregnancies usually centre around a few specic issues. Some of these issues deal with the status of the foetus while others are concerned with the morality of the termination. Id like to make a personal and critical response to these arguments: When a mans sperm impregnates a womans egg the resulting zygote will contain 46 chromosomes, half from each parent donor making a complete DNA set that would enable the zygote to eventually develop into a new and separate person. Technically, the zygote can be considered alive as it metabolises nutrients and oxygen to use as energy in order to further divide as it travels down the fallopian tube. So, in this sense, we could say that a biological life-form does indeed begin at conception. However, many single-celled organisms (fungi, algae or bacteria) also metabolise nutrients, use energy and multiply, they contain their own DNA and must carry out all life processes in order to survive. But who would dream of ghting for the life or the rights of fungi or bacteria in the same way some people want to ght for zygotes, simply because they are biological entities, because theyre alive. Consequently then, the point about the zygote being alive seems to me irrelevant. Some terminations are protested on the grounds that the growing embryo is human. In other words it carries DNA that can be identied as human DNA. That seems a signicant point until we consider that there are plenty of other cells in our bodies, including saliva, hair follicles, teeth, etc that also contain human DNA. Would we defend the rights of a single tooth or a hair follicle, because its human. Or would we deny the human element of red blood cells because they dont have a nucleus and therefore no DNA? Of course not. So, although the embryonic cells do contain DNA, we can hardly call an embryo a human being merely because of that. A human being is also a person, a person with experiences, memories, career, friends, debts, grandchildren, and so on, someone who was born and who has lived. A person is also usually a self-aware, independent, sentient individual who is responsible for her actions. Woman and foetus are in a symbiotic relationship. But a foetus cannot survive outside the body of a woman host, it is completely dependent on her for its survival, for without the life- giving nutrients and oxygen that the woman supplies, a foetus would quickly expire. What the woman does can

affect the foetus and when anything goes wrong with the foetus development, this can pose an on-going threat to the physical well-being of the woman. That situation pertains till the day a baby is born. Rarely can a foetus of less than 24 weeks survive outside a female womb, even though modern medicine is improving the chances of premature babies being born and surviving before 24 weeks is remains remote. For that reason in the UK, the time limit for terminations has hovered around that time for many years. Of course children or elderly people can be dependent as well. But thats a social dependence (food, clothing, care, etc), not actual physical dependence. A foetus is certainly a potential person and potential is important, in the right circumstances. But its highly contingent. For instance, a law student is a potential judge; eggs and our make for a potential cake; I bought a lottery ticket today so, Im a potential billionaire. But we all know that all of these potentialities rely on a host of variables that must all come together at the right time and place for the potential to come to fruition. Day in, day out, were accustomed to students failing their courses; hopefuls not winning the lottery; recipes going wrong, all potentialities unfullled, so what? If just one variable is disrupted, the end result may never come into existence. And, if a variable goes wrong or becomes risky or dangerous, it could be detrimental to nurture it into an enforced existence. Luckily, good sense has saved some of these potentialities from ever being realised, those that could have brought disaster in their wake. Lets not forget though that a foetus is also a potential son or daughter. That makes terminating the pregnancy a heart-wrenching, emotional decision for any would-be parent to make regardless of age or personal circumstances, its bound to be a hard choice. And the only one eligible to make it (in consultation with her partner) is the woman who would be mother to this potential child. It is also sobering to remember that such potential babies all over the globe are quite naturally aborted every day in their millions when the uteruses of countless women ush out their nutrient-rich linings (as late onset periods) and co-incidentally remove the minute zygotes from their support systems often even before their presence ever comes to the notice of their hosts. Science has given us the means to effect the same result articially, in situations where the female involved considers it expedient to do so, except that some misguided pharmacists refuse to dispense the morning after pill because it offends their personal sensibilities, despite the decision having no inuence whatever on their personal life. Such mawkish sentiments might

make these people feel morally superior but in reality, even ten lifetimes would not be enough to grieve for all the millions of zygotes that have been denied a life through the natural processes of uterus ushing any more than we could nd the means to comfort the millions of babies who are indeed brought into life only to endure endless distress because their parents cannot afford them a dignied upbringing. Terminating a pregnancy can be justied on the grounds that the mother is a fully edged human being, a person with full human rights protecting her. The body is hers, and any risks to her future health or welfare that the growing foetus may cause should be hers to accept or refuse, if for no other reason than this: In this country, each person is endowed with their own set of human rights from the minute they are born. But in the case of pregnancy, there is but one body - and there can only be one set of human rights for each body. Given these conditions, there are no equal rights so the woman must take priority and make any decisions regarding the medical integrity of her physical being and decide about any life-threatening chances she wants to take on behalf of a potential person. To terminate a pregnancy is simply to disrupt some potential for a good reason - and the more developed the embryo, the more serious will be the reason. To hurl emotive accusations like murder towards the woman is thoughtless nonsense. People murder animals every day - and eat them. We murder other people in wars or by turning a blind eye to their plight of poverty or famine; we murder prisoners because we judge they have done wrong, even though sometimes we are badly mistaken. We murder living, breathing, viable life-forms in myriad ways wherever and whenever it suits us and when we think we can justify doing so. Evacuating a microscopic zygote or an undeveloped embryo, just doesnt compare. June Maxwell