The dominant perspective under which we judge the topic of Termination of pregnancies Is a manifestation of the current subconscious value system that shapes this era. A constructivist reflection.
Yuval Noah Harari questions our evolutionary success in his book Sapiens. Comparing the endangered wildlife with modern calf in industrialized farms. Though the cattle population around the world goes over a billion, he states that an animal in the brink of extinction is probably more satisfied with its life than a cow that spends its short life inside a tiny box, fattened to produce meat. According to Harari’s research ‘The contented rhinoceros is no less content for being among the last of its kind. The numerical success of the calf’s species is little consolation for the suffering the individual endures’. There is an enormous discrepancy between evolutionary success and individual suffering. Is the human cognitive experience nowadays anything like the one of the calves in the tiny box? Living a life that is limited away from its full potential due to the constructed ideas that shape the way we live and perceive the world. Furthermore, boarding the topic of abortion, are we judging the event of life termination from a constructed perspective that serve the current morals and ethics that rule our societies? We must be able to question ourselves and our beliefs to detach possible opinions from our personal contexts.
Let’s take a real example to support the previous idea. In Paraguay, a 10-year-old girl was raped and got pregnant. Even though it was already a high-risk pregnancy due to her body still developing and a life was already in danger, people were so convinced that the baby needed to be protected. This raises the question of why we are so worried for the human gestating inside and not worried enough for the little girl that is about to become a mother. To what extent goes this preoccupation for the baby? Will the people trying to protect it ensure the child will have a healthy development? Most likely not, because this would take ensuring both lives are out of poverty and following a strict and long psychological treatment, allow the mother and child to finish their education and providing for them for several years. People usually forget about the life once the baby is born and turn their heads to oblivion not to feel guilt and have a light conscience. This goes against the same morals and ethics that drives them to try to protect at all costs the fetus from gestation termination. Being able to choose how we feel and having control on how much we intervene in the matter tells us that these values and morals can be avoided at convenience and free will hence they are a construction that reflect on our modern societies.
It feels as though there is a common subconscious worldwide understanding of this so pursued goal of life. Created, defined, and shaped throughout the passing of time by the various institutions of power that ruled humankind. This is the idea that the more people are living in the world the better we are doing that what we understood to be our divine purpose on earth. Truth is that there is no actual drive to do anything but the things we decide to believe in. the idea of protecting life at all costs is a controversial topic since there is no middle ground or a specific idea of where to start the debate. The concept of where exactly life begins is still a predicament for scientists all over the world. Furthermore, we are defined thoroughly by a misguided ethnocentrism that often leads us to force beliefs upon others.
Gloria Alvarez, a Libertarian Political scientist says about abortion ‘I believe that when people have sex, they must take responsibility for their actions. Yes, but since I am also a libertarian, I cannot impose my value system onto other people. So, if there is a woman who doesn’t want to take responsibility for her actions who am I to come and force my ways of living on them.’ ‘ ….If the woman who has the fetus growing inside her body is not the owner of doing what she pleases with it, what property do those who do not have the fetus growing inside them have to impose on this woman what to do with her body and tell her “you must have it” especially when it comes to cases like 9-year-old girls who were raped and forced to become mothers’.
The topic of pregnancy termination goes around a premise that follows a Christian perspective under which human life is sacred. Holy canons or dogmas are a sensitive element in the debate because they do not leave space for discussion. Under this perspective, the topic is indisputable because we are going against higher commandments and whatever it is said against them goes unheard. Now, what happens for nonreligious people? Nobody glorifies life as it is, if we were to do that, we would then have to glorify all forms of life, from a bacterium to all plants and animals in existence. The obsession with where life itself begins is what undermines the debate. We care about human life just as much as we understand the issue. The real question is where does consciousness begin? Nobody has the answer to this. The day scientists come up with an irrefutable answer on this matter we will open a whole new type of debate. There are people who value freedom more than life. For some, it is better to be dead and free than to be alive and confined in a concentration camp or living a life where consciousness and freedom are compromised. To value freedom over life is to value the quality of the life we are trying to live over just existing because a great majority of people saw it fit.
In conclusion, I am of the belief that it is more important to value freedom over life. By this I mean that I value more the life of the mother that already exists, and their right of choice over a life that still does not. Whereas others follow the premise that freedom of an individual comes after the ‘life’ that is yet to exist. Since this is such a complex and delicate decision, it should be an individual and personal matter. Instead of seeing it as an issue where a specific collective (who have little to do with the matter and does not count with the means or the drive to ensure the wellbeing of all lives affected by this event) decide over the individuals and their right of freedom.
SOURCES
Yuval Noah Harari- Sapiens; a brief history of humankind
Paraguayan News Paper: ‘El Pais’ from article: “THE UN PRESSURES PARAGUAY TO SAVE THE LIFE OF 10-YEAR-OLD PREGNANT GIRL”
Gloria Alvarez Presenting for the libertarian foundation in Argentina.
