While reading the Newsweek article “Should a Fetus Have Rights? How Science is Changing the Debate,” one line in the text immediately jumped out at me: “’It’s not OK for the husband to kill his wife’s child, but it’s OK for the mother (to have an abortion)?’” This quote proved to be incredibly compelling as it offered a new perspective on the abortion situation that had previously not come to mind. I found the way that the quote brought together the two ideas of a father inadvertently killing his wife’s child through beating and a mother consciously ending her child’s life to be very interesting. Both circumstances resulted in the death of a child, yet the intentional ending of the child’s life was considered just, and the unintentional was considered a crime that culminated in jail time. I was definitely caught up in this idea during the rest of the reading, and was wondering what you guys thought of this whole situation? Do you agree or disagree with the quote? Any thoughts?
I thought that was an interesting idea too. I believe that a woman should always be able to have complete control over her own body, but some of the points the article brought up made me pause. In my opinion, it did a good job exploring the gray areas of this issue. I hadn't really thought much, if at all, about some of these things before, and this particular idea about fetal violence was one of them.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the father killing his wife's child, though, he should know better. For one thing, if he's beating his wife that's a crime in and of itself, and for another, it's fairly obvious that by putting the mother in danger he's endangering the child too. So I do think he deserves the consequences.
That quote also jumped out at me too. I think that the difference between the consequences of a woman having an abortion and a man killing his wife's child (or anyone's child for that matter) is that the woman does not PURPOSELY want to murder the baby. A lot of the times the woman is considering abortion because having the child may be hazardous to her health or because she cannot financially support the child. Or perhaps she was raped and is now forced to carry someone else's child. On the other hand, a man that kills his wife's child is doing it intentionally, most likely out of anger or violence.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this was an interesting quote. I had never really thought about abortion in terms of the mother killing the fetus without the father's consent. Although both situations (an abortion & the father doing something to kill the fetus) could result in the death of the fetus against the other parent's wishes, ultimately I think that the difference between the two is that if the mother doesn't want the child, she still has to spend 9 months being pregnant, while the father could literally walk away. This article did raise a lot of interesting points about fetal rights that I hadn't previously considered.
ReplyDelete-Tara Huusko