Family Values: Abortion

InfiniteNow · 04-03-2006

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Originally Posted by pgrmdave

Do you have a life of suffering?

Some Buddhist principles indicate that everyone does.

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Originally Posted by pgrmdave

Do you know people who do?

Absolutely. Many, in fact.

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Originally Posted by pgrmdave

Is there a definite way you can decide whether someone else's life is worth living before it's even gotten underway?

Here's where it gets a bit gray, and I will concede that there is nothing which is absolutely certain. The clearest example that comes to mind is a severely deformed fetus, or baby with significant genetic abnormalities... I'd say let it die before it has the option of even beginning to comprehend suffereing.

Like I said though, it's a tough area to make clear. For example, what if it were my child? Maybe I'd want to chance it.

As an extreme example, when I posted originally, I was thinking of children born to drug addicted mothers who will leave it in a dumpster because she cannot care for it and other such awful acts...

InfiniteNow · 04-03-2006

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Originally Posted by MagnetMan

There are no rights/wrongs in Religious Belief systems.

Thank goodness. For a while there, I was concerned that religion condemned acts like homosexuality, sex before marriage, sex with little boys, saying that the earth was not the center of the universe, that eating meat on Friday is wrong, that portaying the prophet in anyway is a profound incitement, that dot dot dot...

ingannilo · 04-03-2006

Being male, I've never had an abortion. I'm very close with multiple women who have chosen to go that route, and one that hasn't.

Us being entities of nature, and abortion occurring within our society, I'd consider it as natural as a crashing pacific wave... or nylon.

Once in a position where you have to decide between aborting an unborn child, or giving birth to it/him/her there are inevitable consequences that will follow the individual for the rest of their life either way. In the end it boils down the morality of the individual left with the decision, whether that's the potential mother or if she shifts that responsibility to another.

The girls I mentioned, who's names I'm not about to disclose (so they'll be girl's number one, two and three) have all survived their ordeals, and have adapted to the situations their decisions imposed. One manually aborted her child. I wasn't present, and can't imagine what the ordeal was like, and she's spent several years and countless dollars on therapy coming to terms, but like all humans of considerable intellect she has rationalized and moved on.

Girl number two got a medical abortion and seemed far less traumatized than girl one, although I can only speculate as to how the event really effected either of them. She was in highschool at the time, and has since moved on to a very good college and is working her way to a degree in computer science.

Girl number three is now living with a man, not the father of the child, who adores them both. The child is now three years old and although she was kicked out of her parent's home for the decision she made to keep the child, and the child's father ducked out on her as soon as he heard this, they're surviving, and the kid's doing well.

Myself, I believe that every woman should have the right to decide to abort her unborn child, but on a personal level I will never suggest it.

I should add that I knew these three girls when I was younger, and they were all living in their parents homes when they got pregnant, and that I'm not male half of any of these mishaps.

I hope this helps!

MagnetMan · 04-03-2006

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Originally Posted by InfiniteNow

Thank goodness. For a while there, I was concerned that religion condemned acts like homosexuality, sex before marriage, sex with little boys, saying that the earth was not the center of the universe, that eating meat on Friday is wrong, that portaying the prophet in anyway is a profound incitement, that dot dot dot...

I meant that there are no religions more righteous than another. How each interprete and project their Beliefs on society is another matter. But even there I hesitate to judge for without them and their ethnic passions, we would be a godless and spiritless specie.

ingannilo · 04-03-2006

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Originally Posted by MagnetMan

I meant that there are no religions more righteous than another. How each interprete and project their Beliefs on society is another matter. But even there I hesitate to judge for without them and their ethnic passions, we would be a godless and spiritless specie.

I was about to poke at that one. You clarified just in time

Good luck with your research!

Boerseun · 04-03-2006

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Originally Posted by MagnetMan

...we would be a godless and spiritless specie.

...and what, pray tell, would be wrong with that?

ingannilo · 04-03-2006

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Originally Posted by Boerseun

...and what, pray tell, would be wrong with that?

CHEERS!

C1ay · 04-03-2006

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Originally Posted by MagnetMan

I am researching Family Values for a documentary film. I will be posting several threads that explore this subject. It would be helpful if you contribute to this research with your views on <insert topic here>. If you could preface your view with a Y or an N to signify that you have personal experience, that would be even more helpful.

How interesting. You are soliciting input from unknown strangers on the internet for a supposed documentary. Are you trying to actually do legitimate science for your film by using unverifiable points of view that allegedly support your research? This seems a questionable approach to produce documentary grade information. Is it your intent to have the scientific community review and critique your work? Will unverifiable sources bias the judges? While your questions are legitimate I can't say the same of the research methods employed for your documentary.