CATHOLIC DIALOGUE #10

(It is the day following Mike and Jakes conversation. It is lunch hour and mike notices Jake sitting at a table with a girl. Mike decides to join them)

Mike: Hi Jake, mind if I join you for lunch?

Jake: Of course not. Mike this is Jill. Jill, meet Mike.

Mike: What's up.

Jill: (nods her head)

Jake: Mike, Jill and I were just talking about the pro life rally on saturday. I invited her, but she is pro-choice. She was just getting ready to explain her position when you got here.

Mike: Well I'd like to hear what you've got to say. That is if you don't mind.

Jill: Sure. Why not. You see, I don't think the government has the right to tell a woman what she can do with her own body. Our constitution guarantees the right to privacy and that includes the right to decide whether to bring children into the world or not.

Mike: So you think that the right to commit abortion is somehow guaranteed by the constitution and that women were denied this right until 1973 when abortion was legalized right?

Jill: It wouldn't be the first time that this happened. Just look at how long it took women to gain the right to vote. We have a male dominated society and women have always had to struggle to be treated fairly. By the way, why did you say "commit" abortion?

Mike: I believe that abortion, like murder is something that is committed. Opera is something that is performed. We say that a person performs in a gymnastic event. Heart transplants are performed. When we perform well, we give glory to God. After all, He created our bodies that are capable of such high achievement. God is not glorified when we destroy His creation. So it is a contradiction of terms to say that an abortion is performed.

Jill: Well Mike, you can call it whatever you like, but you can't deny that women have a constitutional right to privacy that must be protected by the right to choose. Isn't that what the supreme court decided in the Roe vs. Wade case?

Mike: Not exactly.

Jill: What?!

Mike: The court decided that constitutional law has no basis for holding that the fetus is a person. They also said that no one has an absolute right to control their own body or to have an abortion, but rather they have a limited right to be balanced against competing interests.

Jill: What does all that mean?

Mike: It means that the court divided a pregnancy into 3 trimesters. During the first trimester they decided that the woman's claims are much stronger than the competing (fetus) claim, but that later the balance changes in favor of the unborn child. As the pregnancy progresses the child becomes "viable". Viability is defined as being capable of meaningful life outside of the womb.

Jill: Well that sounds like a pretty good judgement. Why do you disagree with it?

Mike: Well for one thing, viability is a very slippery term. The availability of advanced technology renders viability in remote areas of our country quite different than in New York City or Los Angeles. The main problem that I have with the Roe decision is that they based the value of a person on what they do rather than what they are.

Jill: What do you mean?

Mike: The court said that to be considered a person, the fetus had to be viable, have a regular heart beat, brain waves, movement, and feel pain. They chose 20 weeks as the point where a fetus reaches this stage I have a problem with this because I believe a human is of value because he is made in the image and likeness of God. Unborn life is precious because of what it is. I mean, if we start defining personhood by function, the next logical conclusion is to judge the mentally retarded not to be people. How about a person who is in a coma? Who decides how functional they need to be and what do we do with the ones that don't measure up? These are decisions that God never intended us to make.

Jill: I agree that this is a complex issue, but...

Mike: It's not really that complex. God provided a simple solution in the 5th commandment. "Thou shalt not kill".You see, God is the only Supreme judge. The court itself be fooled by it's title. When they proposed to litigate and amend the 5th commandment they gave into the temptation to "be like gods". This is where Adam and Eve ran into problems.

Jill: Aren't you being a little over dramatic Mike? I mean, I don't think that the court was trying to play God.

Mike: That's funny, one of the original judges would disagree with you.

Jill: He would?

Mike: Justice White was one of the judges who disagreed with the decision and he called it "an exercise in raw judicial power... with no constitutional or legal justification."

Jill: But what about our constitutional right to privacy?

Mike: The right to privacy was mainly a matter of physical intrusion on persons and property. Psychological and personal privacy are relatively "new rights" that were not intended by the writers of the constitution.

Jill: What about free will? God gave us a free will. Don't you think that would include the right to abort an unwanted pregnancy?

Mike: I think God will not interfere when we make a bad decision because He loves us unconditionally. I think that it's interesting that you should mention a woman's right to choose in the context of free will.

Jill: Why is that?

Mike: Because I think you do have a right of choice.

Jill: What?!

MIke: You have the right to choose abstinence outside of marriage. Before conception, that's the time to choose.

Jake: Mike's right. Before marriage, the only choice that pleases God is abstinence. After you're married you can us contraceptives to regulate the size of your family. Right Mike?

Mike: No.

Jake: What? Why not?

Mike: Artificial contraceptives like the pill and RU486 are abortifacients.

Jake: What does that mean?

Mike: the primary function of the pill is to prevent ovulation, but the package insert states that BLOCKAGE OF IMPLANTATION IS ONE OF THE MECHANISMS OF THE PILL. That means that if an egg does get fertilized it will not become implanted and will spontaneously abort. People who use the pill run the risk of committing a sort of passive abortion. The end result is the same. A life is ended.

Jill: Now wait a minute. Who is to say when life actually begins?

Mike: Well, most scientists agree that life begins at fertilization. they observe that a fertilized egg has 48 chromosomes, is unique, has a determined sex, and is growing. They also note that once sperm and egg are joined you don't have to add anything else. It just naturally grows into a person. The point is that you do not come from a fertilized ovum, you once were a fertilized ovum.

Jill: That's interesting. You say a fertilized ovum grows into a person the same as a young man grows into an old man. It's just part of the process. So life begins at conception.

Mike: Life began on this planet a few billion years ago. Life does not come from non-life, it is passed on from one generation to the next in an unbroken chain. At conception, the life of an individual begins. Individuality is the most important part. Individuals have dignity and are precious.

Jill: You have some pretty good points Mike. I'll have to think this over.

Mike: Ok and while you're thinking, maybe you should see a film called "Silent Scream". It shows scenes of a 10 week fetus that is aborted. During the abortion, the heartbeat accelerates to 200 beats per minute either from fear or exhilaration and there is a reflexive withdrawal from the pain.

Jill: Sounds pretty grotesque.

Mike: The techniques for committing abortion are very grotesque. Do you know how they...

Jill: Please!! Don't tell me. I have a weak stomach.

Mike: Ok, I don't want to upset you. Can I tell you a few more things about the unborn child?

Jill: Ok.

Mike: Well at 6 weeks, electrical activity or brain waves are present. At 10 weeks neural connections are present in the thalamus (where pain is processed). I have seen photographs at 18 weeks of a fetus sucking its thumb. In the Bible there is the story of when the Virgin Mary visited Her cousin Elizabeth (Catholics call this the Visitation). The Gospel says that John jumped for joy to be in the presence of the Lord. Mary could not have been over two weeks pregnant, but John (who was also unborn), recognized the presence of Jesus.

Jill: Wow! I never thought about that before.

Mike: Now what do you think? Will you join us on Saturday? We have to do all that we can to stop the killing.

Jill: Yes Mike, you can count on me.

Mike: That's great. We need all the support we can get. You know that no democracy has ever reversed the liberalization of abortion, but no other democracy is quite like the United States. You know, "One nation under God with liberty and justice for all."

Jake: Even the unborn.

Mike: Right.