By
Neat stuff over at Parablemania and a short story on abortion
Jeremy has a link to a great article in his post "Scientific data on human genetic diversity."

He also comments on this claim by democratic presidential hopeful General Wesley Clark, "Life begins with the mother's decision."

Err, right. I once knew agentlemann from Norway (a place that some might characterise as the capital of the euthanasia movement) who was appalled at the way Americans treat abortion. In his country a woman does not make a decision about having an abortion without first having a lengthy consultation with her doctor(s). The family is always involved and abortion is not seen as a rights issue but as a medical issue. In Norway having an abortion is a decision not to be made unless one has all the facts and sound, presumably medical, reasons for having the procedure done. A woman is not abandoned to make such a heavy decision on her own under the flimsy premise that it her "right" to do so when ever she pleases. When a mother in Norway reaches the stage of considering having an abortion she is seen as most in need of the support of friends, family, and the medical profession. And she gets that support. This gentleman was, as my husband puts it, horrified that Americans allowed something like partial-birth abortions to happen.

Update:
The Norwegian system has a panel of professionals considering each case to decide if an abortion is medically necessary. If they say it is, the mother and the doctor can go ahead with the abortion. If they say it isn't, there's no chance of a legal abortion.
Jeremy Pierce

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Rise Up In The Darkness

By
Image
The teenager who joked with me over physics and algebra homework tonight was 6 months old the morning of September 11, 2001. He spent that day like many other 6 month olds spend their days, exploring his world and being saved from his own curiosity by mom. That morning after I got tired of hauling him back from the edge of the bed he was intent on crawling over I took him downstairs to safer level terrain. I turned on the television to check the news like I did every morning back then. At first I was horrified by what I saw. One smoldering tower. Not long after, while all the reporters and newscasters were struggling to make sense of what they were seeing, one plane, another tower, and I was pissed. At that point I understood what was happening. Why did people think, and still think, that kind of wretchedness served their cause? I didn't care what the cause was. These were arrogant fools. But the news kept coming about just how wretched humanity had been to itself that day. The
Read more

Treating autism as traumatic brain injury

By
I've been doing research into autism, dyspraxia, how the normal brain works, and how an autistic/dyspraxic brain works (or doesn't work). Traumatic injury to different parts of the brain can cause the same problems suffered by autistic and dyspraxic children. Compare this list of the functions of different parts of the brain and the problems caused by injuries to those areas with these descriptions of dyspraxia and autism. What is Developmental Dyspraxia? Developmental dyspraxia is a disorder characterized by an impairment in the ability to plan and carry out sensory and motor tasks. Generally, individuals with the disorder appear "out of sync" with their environment. Symptoms vary and may include poor balance and coordination, clumsiness, vision problems, perception difficulties, emotional and behavioral problems, difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking, poor social skills, poor posture, and poor short-term memory. Although individuals with the disorder may b
Read more

Battlestar Galactica needs more colour?

By
Here are the letters I mentioned in the previous post. The one that started it (I'm guessing these letters were written after the show's first airing at the end of 2003): Galactica Needs More Diversity The problem I had with Battlestar Galactica was there were no major and very few minor African American characters. There were no Black men in the show at all or if they were, they had virtually no screentime. In the original series, Boomer and Tigh were both played by African American actors. In this rendition of Battlestar, those characters were played by Asian and White actors. In the Caprica city, there no African American extras. On the Galactica's bridge, there was only one African American actress. Another Black actress could be found playing a religious official that swore in the new President of the colonies. This was very troubling to me. Do you not want African Americans to watch your show? Do you want to project the idea that African Americans are not part of the
Read more