Jacqueline Busuttil, Ta' Xbiex.
Abortion questions and answers
René Joseph Ellul (April 2) tried to water down the gravity of abortion. People are much cleverer than he thinks. He seems to be surprised that 93 per cent of people taking part in a survey were against abortion.
Everybody knows that the killing of an embryo/unborn child is murder whichever way you look at it. Mr Ellul said he would rephrase the question: "Do you agree that abortion should be legalised?" Instead he would ask the following questions:
1. "Do you think it is right to introduce the morning after pill?" The answer is the morning after pill is abortive.
2. "Do you think that a woman who was raped should have the right to abortion?" The answer is the same ‒ abortion is murder, and no reason can justify murder.
3. "Should a woman have the choice whether to abort or not if she is in danger?" The answer is the doctor is in duty bound to save both mother and child.
Mr Ellul ended his letter saying that, if these questions were asked, the percentage would be different. He hopes more people would accept a law against life. Is it not a pity?
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Gerry Cowie
Apr 9th 2008, 19:09
Christopher Xuereb - yes, as you and other say, people can and do go elsewhere to have abortions. It is a shame that they feel the need to have the abortions in the first place.
Mr Crocker, please note that Abortion may be considered as murder, but murder is clearly not considered as abortion. The idea that women having periods is tantamount to abortion is ridiculous in the extreme! Periods and miscarriages are natural occurrence!
Just as I keep saying, people are trying too hard to twist the words of others in an attempt to appear clever!
Stop peddling the idea that all those who do not favour abortion are religious fanatics!
Please can we have some decorum when putting forward arguments!
Kyle Pullicino
Apr 7th 2008, 22:52
I'd like to clarify something that is bothering Mr. Cardona. When the mother's life is in danger (that is, she will almost certainly die if she continues and gives birth) she is asked whether she would like to risk it or abort the pregnancy.
This can be used as a last resort only if there is absolutely no way to save both the women and the child.
It is something that is generally accepted (as long as the mother is really in danger of dying) and is also allowed by the Roman Catholic Church, just for your information.
All other cases are simply outright murder.
Also, Mr. Crocker is wrong in stating that gametes are individual human beings. The truth is that they are simply another cell part of the human being that produced them (to be even more accurate it is actually "half" a cell). For more information on this I suggest you take a look at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gametes
Joseph Micallef
Apr 7th 2008, 21:34
Its so worrying that people think they have a right to murder whoever bothers them! Why is it acceptible to murder a baby or embryo and not a grown up? With the same reasoning if someone bothers me i am justified to kill him! How can anyone invoke the right of a woman to murder her child!!
JOHN SCERRI
Apr 7th 2008, 21:20
Let the child be born - grow up to the age of reason 8 to 10 years and let the child decide. Imagine YOU are that child .
Your biological mother says one fine morning - hey - have you decided whether you want to live or die TODAY? I should not have given birth to you in the first place.
What will be your answer ?
Some parents baptise their babies because they reason that it is the best for them.
Is it also the best for them not to let them live?
The only case when a VERY delicate decision must be taken is when the mother's life is at risk due to medical conditions . The difficult decision must be taken - The mother or the child?? It really hurts .
George Caruana
Apr 7th 2008, 21:13
Mary, I never in my writing claimed “to legalise it to make it right.” Neither have I ever asserted that women are “dispensable sex objects to be reused time and time over.” Important to decriminalise abortion in order to put into practice what you are preaching. Otherwise it remains rhetoric. Nothing is easier than talk.
adrian cardona
Apr 7th 2008, 20:39
3. "Should a woman have the choice whether to abort or not if she is in danger?" The answer is the doctor is in duty bound to save both mother and child.
What an easy way out of the question!! And if the mother wants to live and try again for another baby later? If her husband is crying by her side terrified of losing his wife just so that the foetus has a chance? Do you think I would ever permit anyone to put my wife's life in danger?
All you moralists out there fail to answer such morally tricky questions....all you see is black or white. Who are you to decide if my wife lives or not? Who are you to impose on me and my wife who of them should live? How dare you!!
Jennifer Cosaitis
Apr 7th 2008, 19:49
At no point in my post did I say that I am either in favour or against abortion. My argument is that I should have a say in my own decisions and that people should not try to impose teir opinion on each other. This as such is not about abortion as such but also for other topics. So please Mr Abela and Ms Agius - don't jump to conclusions and judge what you think my position on the issue is.
George Caruana
Apr 7th 2008, 19:46
Kyle, "women that are in need of it..." will only comes forward, and can be accessed, in an environment where abortion is decriminalised. Otherwise it is wishful thinking. Period.
Gerry Cowie
Apr 7th 2008, 19:42
The debate rages on!
Sadly abortion is not defined by the law of the land as murder, so it is not considered as such. Yet ending a life outside of the womb is murder - strange, that!
The argument about rape is always put forward in an attempt to appeal to our emotions. A new life has begun and another being has to suffer as a result of the rape which brought about the start of that new life.
To those who feel that they should not be "dictated to" by others, please note that all laws have been passed to protect society. All laws dictate to us. Are those people who do not want to be told seeking all laws to be repealed and for chaos to come to society already in a state of chaos as it is?
Looking at the posts so far there is evidence of accusations. Once again I call for restraint in our language, whichever side of the argument we might be on.
Christopher Xuereb
Apr 7th 2008, 18:13
Mandy, happily married with 3 kids thanks. What I said was that if a woman wishes (who’s imposing??- in this country it is the anti-abortionists who do the imposing) for a termination she can, thankfully and notwithstanding the laws of this Vatican, still have it done by hopping onto a plane or a catamaran. Anti-abortionists may get as hot as they please under the collar, the immutable fact remains that dozens of Maltese women do have abortions every year (in spite of all the sanctimonious claptrap that appears in papers like this) and no amount of entrenchment is going to stop that.
Graham Crocker
Apr 7th 2008, 17:47
I don't believe Abortion is good, but I don't believe it should be illegal either.
Its a big responsibility to raise a child nowadays, its no joke.
If 95% of the population in Malta is Roman Catholic, I don't see why abortion should be illegal.
Roman Catholics are not allowed to abort pregnancies thats 5% that can only consider.
Why are the Roman Catholics even bothering?
If its against their religion, they shouldn't do it, but they should love & tolerate others who don't have the same beliefs.
If murder = abortion, because the fetus is a potential child, then we must all agree that all women who have their periods are killers.
In any case, if a mother wants to abort her child, she is definitely not fit to raise a child.
Abortion isn't nice, I've seen a video of an unborn child being aborted, and yes depending on the age of the unborn child, it can feel and even at a week old, you can see it struggling to survive.
The reason for this is from 1st to 4th trimester Neural tubes are formed.
If anything I believe Chemical abortions (those that work before the Neural tubes are formed), should definetly be legal.
If people don't agree with chemical abortions, they don't agree with women having their Periods or men having their wet dreams.
Kyle Pullicino
Apr 7th 2008, 17:45
Congratulations Ian Briffa. I completely agree with you that we are being trampled. Especially now that the Council of Europe wants us to legalise abortion. Now that we're in Europe we're being forced to lose our right to life when there are an overwhelming number of altenatives that are for life. Believe me when I say that I am certainly not going to trade my right to live so that some so-called "doctors" can fill their pockets for that.
And Jennifer Cosaitis, you seem to be enlightened enough to tell us that we can chose to do whatever we wish. Are you also good enough at deciding who should be unlucky enough to die too?
Ian Briffa
Apr 7th 2008, 16:22
Well said Jennifer. In Malta we have our rights trampled on by people who make choices for us. We're in Europe now but we don't have the same rights. If abortion was legal nobody would force someone who didn't want one to have an abortion. But over here people cannot make the choice for themselves. It's the same with divorce.
Danica Aguis
Apr 7th 2008, 15:15
Who thinks that a baby of 1 day should die because its dad may have raped his mum? We would all agree that this is wrong, What difference a day makes for some however? in Brussels they are talking about a law to do just that. This is where abortion leads.
Danica Aguis
Apr 7th 2008, 15:12
Sick. Absolutely sick. Abortion is the rights of one over another who cannot defend himslef Jennifer. Who are you to say that the baby has no say in the matter? The baby has its own DNA and blood type. It is not an extention of the mother like a growth or an organ. How very sick
David Abela
Apr 7th 2008, 15:09
Yes Jennifer, murder is controversial but why should you tell me what I should or should not be doing. oh, whislt I am at it, child abuse is controversial, so why just let paedofiles get away with it, who are we to restrict them. Really Jennifer, if you think about it, your statement is only valid because you choose to say that there was no life in the womb when it was killed. Give us a break.
Jennifer Cosaitis
Apr 7th 2008, 14:38
In regard to the previous posts, and also the letter in question, why should other people decide what is right and what is wrong for other people? This is not only applicable to the issue of abortion, but also to other controversial issues. Why should people like myself be denied the chance to use my brain and make my own decision, whether in favour or against by people who think they know it all?
Kyle Pullicino
Apr 7th 2008, 14:20
George Caruana asked, "So, how (do) you think (the) rate of abortions can be reduced?"
It's a very simple solution: Help the women that are in need of it... not try to maximize the profits one can gain from their desperation. (Propoganda, these last few days, also proved to be quite effective)
Ramon Casha then said that "You may feel something very strongly, but there are many - if not most - who do not believe life begins at conception"
Funny, though, that science proved that a new human life begins at conception and people try to come up with such an argument just so that we conveniently introduce abortion.
"Those women who, for whatever reasons of their own, wish for a termination catch a catamaran or plane and do what they need to do, notwithstanding the moralising of the Michael Asciaks and Paul Vincentis of this world."
So, I suppose you won't find any problem with legalising the use of cannabis in Malta because anyone who wants to make use of cannabis can simply take a trip to Russia and do whatever one wants there. (Cannabis is legal in Russia by the way)
"If the couple had, by mutual consent, made a prior agreement that they should use contraception in order to minimize (as much as possible) the possibility of pregnancy, why should anyone deny the woman the use of the EC pill?"
No, she shouldn't because the couple did minimize it but it wasn't impossible. If the couple really loved each other (I suppose that's why they were engaging in intercourse) they will seek help from the wonderful and generous Maltese society and will together, successfully raise a child.
"Imagine a girl (perhaps even your own daughter) traumatised and psychologically brutalised by a gang rape finding that some anti-abortionist fundamentalist will deny her a termination and force her to live through the pregnancy and the childbirth. What compassion!!"
If you're not ready to help your own daughter with her child and urge her to just run away from the problem is not really the ideal parent I was thinking of. And if the parent isn't ready to help, she can find many other friendly people willing to do this amazing act of love.
Then there are the fundamentalist abortionists who will gladly fix it all for you in a matter of minute and forget you the next day. (Just make sure you hand over the money!)
As I've already said, once the most vulnerable of human beings lose their rights, we will eventually be made puppets to those that look forward to manipulate us.
Mandy Aguis
Apr 7th 2008, 14:19
Chris, another man who wants a women to just be boxed into a category of a problem when pregnant. Hope you're not married for her sake.
Mandy Aguis
Apr 7th 2008, 14:17
Dear Felicity. Read the only objective book ever written on abortion and rape. It contains verified scientific research on women who have had abortions after a rape experience. Over 85% attest that they thought having the abortion was wrong even after rape and made their lives worse. 87% say that keeping the baby after rape, actually helped them get over the rape faster and more deeply.
Who in the right mind would want to make it worse for a women, even if I did have a daughter? I hope that you don’t now state that this is some pro-life propaganda as that would really be sad. The book was written by a man called Dr David Reardon, it was written objectively as a contribution to the debate by a man who actually thought at first like you did about rape and abortion. His findings are causing shockwaves across countries that allow abortion for these cases and many women who went through this experience are speaking out against it. They say that getting over the rape was easier. Getting over abortion impossible. If I had a daughter, I know what I would do in such a terrible situation, killing the baby and making it worse for my daughter would not be my choice. Felicity, do try not to take such absolute stands based just on hard hitting emotional examples and try to investigate the implications of these statements. Lives are at stake here, not reputations and egos.
Mary Casha
Apr 7th 2008, 13:53
George, certainly not by killing more babies. If something is wrong, you don't try to lergalise it to make it right. You are very rich on opinion George but shallow in values. Women need to beware from the likes of men who think they can control us by controlling our fertility as well. Abortion just tells men like you that we are dispensable sex objects to be reused time and time over. Women are sensitive emotional beings unlike some men who see us as objects to be dumped after an abortion. I know two Maltese girls who felt they had no choice and believed people like you that abortion was their right to get out of a problem. Now they see what it has done to their lives they are devastated. They both say how they wished they found someone to help them keep their babies instead of even their partners, men, who abandoned them. Who are you to have an opinion about something you clearly know nothing about. The people from Gift for Life at least are trying to make a difference helping women, you just want to throw us to the dogs after using us for pleasure. Be a little more sensitive and less dictatorial. Babies are not problems but lives and pregnant women are already mothers and don’t appreciate men attacking them as though they are lesser creatures just because they are pregnant. We want help and support not abortion when pregnant, but the men are gone when you need their help with their baby.
Tomothy Zammit
Apr 7th 2008, 13:45
Ramon, your statement, “but there are many - if not most - who do not believe life begins at conception is scientifically incorrect. There are no scientists worth a penny who will realistically attest that life does NOT begins at conception. They may not all agree on whether that life deserves to be allowed to keep on maturing into birth but not that it does not exist or that it has not begun. In fact in 1979, the American School of Gynaecologist, changed the definition of pregnancy to “begining at implantation” from beginning at conception only to circumvent the protests by pro-lifers that the morning after pill was abortive. Their reasoning was this. As they could not deny the accepted scientific fact that life began at conception, they set about to change the definition of pregnancy in their medical test books between 1978 and 1979, thus, the morning after pill could no longer be abortive if the embryo had not implanted. Of course the morning after pill also works by preventing break though pregnancies from implanting. How sick is that? All for money?
Nobody, can deny a scientific fact, even if it does not serve your pro abortion opinion. Human lives and real babies die in abortion, women get wounded after abortion, physically and psychologically. This is an inconvenient reality that clearly interrupts your argument. I suggest you take a break from trying to convince all and sundry that there is a hidden pro-abortion movement in Malta when it is obvious that it is made up of a couple of buddies who probably meet up for a drink on the weekends to plot their next vain quest. Malta is against abortion in its majority at over 90%, I saw the figures from at least two independent reliable sources myself with the Times of Malta being one of them and no amount of ranting from you or the Raphael’s and Daphne’s of this world is going to change that fact. You seem to think that by lying in a letter in a respectable paper, you can convince intelligent, not necessarily religious people that being pro-life in some way means being less or bigoted. I think you are much deluded. Your reasoning is closer to totalitarianism that you think.
M. Depasquale
Apr 7th 2008, 13:23
Ms. Busuttil, You are so right! No reason can justify murder: I fully agree.
Felicity Schism
Apr 7th 2008, 12:41
"Do you think that a woman who was raped should have the right to abortion?" The answer is the same - abortion is murder, and no reason can justify murder.”
Imagine a girl (perhaps even your own daughter) traumatised and psychologically brutalised by a gang rape finding that some anti-abortionist fundamentalist will deny her a termination and force her to live through the pregnancy and the childbirth. What compassion!!
F J Brincat
Apr 7th 2008, 12:36
What if a couple is engaged in protected intercourse, the man wearing a condom, and the condom breaks?
Why shouldn’t the woman be allowed to take the Emergency Contraception pill?
If the couple had, by mutual consent, made a prior agreement that they should use contraception in order to minimize (as much as possible)the possibility of pregnancy, why should anyone deny the woman the use of the EC pill?
Christopher Xuereb
Apr 7th 2008, 12:30
Reading this letter and the many others that have appeared in the same vein, it is a comfort to know that the proscription on abortion (unlike the absence of a divorce law) is of little practical effect. Those women who, for whatever reasons of their own, wish for a termination catch a catamaran or plane and do what they need to do, notwithstanding the moralising of the Michael Asciaks and Paul Vincentis of this world.
Ramon Casha
Apr 7th 2008, 11:45
Any sentence which starts with "Everybody knows that..." is false. You may feel something very strongly, but there are many - if not most - who do not believe life begins at conception, and that therefore abortion is not murder.
George Caruana
Apr 7th 2008, 11:38
So, how you think rate of abortions can be reduced?
Timothy Zammit
Apr 7th 2008, 10:30
Well said Jacqueline. These pro abortin people really are a lost lot of people. I get the impression that hey all seem to get mixed up thinking that this is some religious belief. Probably because they have a grudge or two between them against the church. It is simply unfair to attack innocence like that. Well done Malta.