More progress with the damp kitchen: EBS have really got the finger out - they've sourced the leak (a neighbour's washing machine), got my constituent temporarily re-housed and have promised to have the kitchen replastered, repainted, rebuilt and the old man back at home by 16 July...I am holding them to their promise.
Read Cardinal O'Brien's call in yesterday's Scotsman for a political review on the Abortion Laws and some of ther responses today. It is a difficult one isn't it? We have become a secular society - quite uniquely really - governed by secular law based on assumptions about shared morality yet there is plainly a point where those with firm faith find that public morality clashing with their personal viewpoint. Even those of us with no faith reach a point where public and private morality bump. Abortion is one of those areas, I think.
I can well remember the debates in the 60's when David Steele's bill was going through parliament. At the time I was firmly pro-choice, convinced by the medical arguments, by the reality of botched backstreet abortions, by the opinion that women had the right of choice over their own bodies. I guess those practical reasons have real force for me still. But, where once there was only certainty there is now creeping doubt.
I look at the ultra sound images of friends' and family babies in the womb and know I am seeing a real human being: I know too that human being is utterly dependent on its mother (and her medical team) for continued survival at least till birth and I wonder what's the difference between the womb and the maternity ward: science has completely blurred the boundaries of ante and post natality.
I know too I don't buy into arguments about life being random or casual or easily disposable. If my life's important so is every other one. The politican willing to compromising that principle has no place in democratic politics.
The reason for favouring abortion was principally about the life & well being of the mother and I don't resile from that. But as UK society grows wealthier and science changes medical realities it gets harder to make those arguments. I am reminded of, (I think, though I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong) Albert Einstein who said, 'when the facts change so does my opinion.' Of course, that doesn't address the dilemma of the woman who been been raped, or the girl who is still a child herself and is pregnant or the many, many other exceptions that will prove a rule...but on balance, yes. I do think we need to review the current position.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment