Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: Re: THIRD TRIMESTER ABORTIONS
From: mcbeanb@brandonu.ca
Date: 27 Aug 92 11:59:58 CST
Organization: Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada

In article <1992Aug27.001621.12915@noao.edu>, forgach@noao.edu (Suzanne Forgach) writes:
> From article <1992Aug22.115838.2156@brandonu.ca>, by mcbeanb@brandonu.ca:
>> In article <1992Aug21.192541.10624@noao.edu>, forgach@noao.edu (Suzanne Forgach) writes:
>>> From article <23919@oasys.dt.navy.mil>, by bense@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Ron Bense):
>>>> In talk.abortion, forgach@noao.edu (Suzanne Forgach) writes:
>> 
>>> Obviously Ron, you've just refuted yourself, since if the baby is going
>>> to die anyway due to some defect, there is no reason whatsoever to put it
>>> to death!
>> 
>> What about the child which is produced?  
> 
> What about the child that IS?

Would you have felt better if I had typed "the child which is created"?
Same difference.
  
>> Even if s/he dies shortly thereafter
>> it will suffer.  The family will have to endure his/her ensuing death.
>> Someone has to pay the extra bills.  It isn't fun.  My second cousin
>> Kirk was born with a terrible defect which was supposed to allow him
>> less than a year to live.  He is constantly in excruciating pain, is
>> always drowned in pain killers, more than enough to kill a child, but I
>> believe he has produced some sort of resistance.  My cousin and her family
>> still visit him, even though he can be nothing more than a vegetable,
>> and if he's anything more than that then his hell is all that much worse.
>> He requires the attention and time of hospital staff to keep comfortable.
>> He just sits and drools.  I doubt he could think with the mix of pain
>> and drugs.  
>> 
>> Kirk is three years old now.  He still hasn't died.  Had his parents
>> known of this defect beforehand, I am positive they would rather have
>> aborted him than to put everyone, especially Kirk, through this certain 
>> hell.
> 
> 
> I'll bet you anything that the nurses (not to mention his parents) love him
> on a daily basis, and he knows it.   For you to second guess the "quality"
> of his life is nothing less than Gestapo tactics.   

Suzanne.  Imagine a baby who is born into a world of constant excruciating
pain, only to be interrupted by mind-numbing doses of powerful pain killers.
Do you really think that baby is capable of *any* thought whatsoever?
Capable of knowing *any* feeling but that of pain??

> For you to suggest that
> your cousin would have reverted to killing her own baby is the biggest insult
> you could have possibly slung at her.

In your opinion.  Did you stop to think that her opinion may differ?
 
> Beware lest somebody come along and second guess the "quality" of _your_
> lifestyle, Brian, and hence whether _your_ life is "worth living".

I'll take this as a sign that you don't approve of euthanasia in general.
I'm sure that either my fiancee (hopefully my wife by the time I'm
in the vegetative state) or my son could decide whether or not to 
"pull my plug".  If they were both gone, then I'd leave my life to 
chance.
 
> Suzanne Forgach

Brian McBean  -  McBeanB@BrandonU.Ca
Xref: sparky talk.abortion:34948 alt.abortion.inequity:3497