Origin of Life
Lesson 6
Appendix to the Origin of Life
Study
Some Ethics Issues related to
Infanticide
What is meant by infanticide?
Infanticide means infant
killing. As distinguished from abortion, in ordinary usage, it means to
intentionally take the life of a tiny human being after birth. Abortion means to take a life before birth.
Does infanticide occur today?
The number of infants killed each year has remained relatively
constant since 1990, ranging from a high of 304 in 1991 to 249 in 1995,
according to a review
of FBI data for the past six years.
Is infanticide common in hospitals?
Yes. A professor of pediatrics at the
Why do scientists recommend infanticide?
Another Nobel laureate, James Watson, added, "If a
child were not declared alive until three days after birth, then all parents
could be allowed the choice ... the doctor could allow the child to die if the
parents so chose and save a lot of misery and suffering." Some of his colleagues
disagreed; they preferred thirty days after birth.
Do these scientists consider the
newly born human?
Geneticist Joshua Lederberg is
explicit: “The newborn infant must undergo further development to achieve the
full measure of humanity.”
What is implied by using
consciousness as a test of humanity?
He declares: "An organism possesses a serious right
to life only if it possesses the concept of a self as a continuing subject of
experience and other mental states, and believes that it is itself such a
continuing entity."
Further, it means that someone who is unconscious is not
human. If a killer would knock out his victim before killing him, then
presumably it would not be murder.
Is there a logical connection
between abortion and infanticide?
The famous situation ethicist Joseph Fletcher saw the
inseparable connection when he concluded that abortion is "fetal
euthanasia" and infanticide is "postnatal abortion."
Common sense dictates that if the baby is a human person
the moment after birth, then it is also a human person the moment before birth.
Passing through a birth canal does not make one a human
person any more than does moving across the street. A change in address is not
a change in human status.
Professor Krason noted, "If
we are prepared to say that a life should not come into this world malformed or
abnormal, then tomorrow we should be prepared to say
that a life already in this world which becomes malformed or abnormal should
not be permitted to live."
Do abortion rights advocates
really admit to a connection between abortion and infanticide.
Yes, some do. To replace an essential definition of
personhood with a functional one, logically leads to infanticide, many
abortion-rights defenders admit either explicitly or implicitly.
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood: "The
most merciful thing a large family can do for one of its infant members is to
kill it."
Esther Langston, Ph.D. professor of social work,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas: "What we are saying is that abortion
becomes one of the choices, and the person has the right to choose whatever it
is that is best that they need as necessary and best for them in the situation
for which they find themselves, be it abortion, to keep, to adopt, to sell, to
leave in a dumpster, to put on your porch, whatever; it's the person's right to
choose."
Is the withholding or withdrawal of artificial treatment
of infants ever justified?
Yes. The purpose of medicine is to help not harm. If the
treatment does not help the patient (the infant) but merely perpetuates death,
withdrawal (stopping treatment which has begun) or withholding (never beginning
treatment) is justified.
If infants are fully human, the decision to withhold
artificial treatment must be made in accordance with the same guidelines we
employ for adults.
Is infanticide justified when the
infant will have a poor quality of life?
Some people argue that if an infant has a mental or
physical deformity he or she will have a poor quality of life. Thus infanticide
is justified.
By claiming that the newborn does not have a right to life
because of a mental or physical deformity, the defender of this argument
implies that adults with the same handicap do not have a right to life.
What about killing babies born
prematurely
On
By claiming that the newborn does not have a right to life
because of a mental or physical deformity, the defender of this argument
implies that adults with the same handicap do not have a right to life.
The moving comments of columnist
and political commentator George F. Will on the subject of infanticide of downs syndrome
babies are worth noting:
"When
a commentator has a direct personal interest in an issue, it behooves him to
say so. Some of my best friends are Down syndrome citizens. (Citizens is what Down syndrome children are if they avoid being
homicide victims in hospitals.) Jonathan Will, 10, fourth-grader and Orioles
fan (and the best wiffle-ball hitter in southern
He is doing nicely, thank you. But he is bound to have quite enough problems dealing with society--receiving rights, let alone empathy. He can do without people like Infant Doe's parents, and courts like Indiana's asserting by their actions the principle that people like him are less than fully human. On the evidence, Down syndrome citizens have little to learn about being human from the people responsible for the death of Infant Doe.