Editor’s Note: This is a piece from Arrias on the nature of life, and some of the real and emotional issues that come with it. We are in a transitional place in our society. This is an example of why it is so profound. In it, I discovered I was an Aristotilian. Arrias approaches from a slightly different perspective. I have a few issues on my plate that I prefer not to touch. Arrias does. <\/p>\n
– Vic<\/p>\n
Losing Our Souls – For the Moment<\/p>\n
\t![](\"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Arrias.jpg\")
The President having performed his Constitutional role and nominated someone to fill the vacant slot on the Supreme Court, consider the major issue: abortion. And for a moment, consider the question of abortion without regard to religion (and apologies to R.E.M.)<\/p>\n
\tAbortion has become the litmus test for the Democrats. The question we might ask is: Why? But back to that later.<\/p>\n
\tThe specific issue of abortion rests on one question: Is there a soul? It\u2019s really a simple question and there are, objectively, only two possible answers: yes, or no.<\/p>\n
\tIf there\u2019s a soul, the question further breaks down to: \u201cwhen does the soul inhabit the body?\u201d St. Thomas Aquinas, one of mankind\u2019s great minds, thought the soul didn\u2019t inhabit the body until 40 days after conception, for males, or 80 days for females. This was, in fact, based on his understanding of the science involved, which was in turn based on Aristotle, who believed conception didn\u2019t yield an actual human fetus until 40, or 80, days. At that point, Aquinas said, the soul now being present, to abort the child was murder. <\/p>\n
\tScience has long since shown Aristotle to be wrong in his biology, conception takes place on day one, and thus the soul is present immediately. Returning to Aquinas\u2019s real point, once the soul is present, you can\u2019t abort the child. Since the soul is present immediately, you can\u2019t abort the child.<\/p>\n
\tIf you believe in the soul.<\/p>\n
\tBut what if you don\u2019t?<\/p>\n
\tIf there is no soul, the fetus is just a mass of cells, cells that are utterly dependent on someone else to live. And the state – and virtually every country on the planet for that matter – provides for the right to eliminate the fetus. There are time limits that vary between legal jurisdictions, in some cases as little as 15 weeks and in some cases right up the point of birth. Many states, and nations, now have laws in effect that reflect on the \u201cviability\u201d of the fetus, that is, the ability of the fetus to live outside the womb.<\/p>\n
\tBut this is the part that\u2019s difficult to understand. Why is viability an issue? If the fetus is \u201cviable\u201d and is removed from the womb, can it survive without a mother? No. Hmmm\u2026 Viable\u2026 Interesting word. Viable means (per the Oxford English Dictionary) \u201ccapable of living; able to maintain a separate existence.\u201d Living, life, separate existence…<\/p>\n
\tAnd therein lies a real problem with abortion. What is happening right before our eyes is the manipulation of the meaning of the word \u201clife.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe Declaration of Independence lists our unalienable rights as \u201cLife, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d That Life is listed first is not happenstance; the right to life is our first right; if you are deprived of it, the others are pretty much meaningless.<\/p>\n
\tBut what if you start adjusting the legal meaning of the word \u201clife?\u201d The fetus is a mass of living, growing cells, it is organized as separate from the mother. But it\u2019s not \u201cviable.\u201d Until some point where science has managed to remove it from the womb and keep it growing (a constantly changing number), and that is then defined as “viable.\u201d But it\u2019s not really living a separate existence.<\/p>\n
\tIn fact, it\u2019s not capable of living a separate existence until it\u2019s 3 or 4 years old. Maybe 7 or 8. And what about when it\u2019s old? Or sick? Or severely injured? Or in some way developmentally disabled? Is it viable then? <\/p>\n
\tFrom the perspective of the modern state, yes, but only because the state so defines it. <\/p>\n
\tAlready we\u2019ve seen how \u201cviable\u201d has been modified; \u201cterminally ill\u201d patients with less than 6 months to live (a prognostication that has been found to be wrong about 80% of the time), face depression and a low “quality of life\u201d are eligible for assisted suicide. The individual is \u201cviable,\u201d but the quality of life is \u201clow\u201d and therefore \u201clife\u201d can be terminated by the individual. And in some countries, if the individual is no longer capable of communicating, the individual\u2019s family and doctors can decide that the low \u201cquality of life\u201d warrants terminating it.<\/p>\n
\tSo, what you have are courts and legislatures around the country and the world redefining life. Life, plain and simple has become \u201cviable life.\u201d And viable in some countries has already morphed into \u201cbetter quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tConsider that between 2008 and 2012 not one Downs Syndrome baby was born in Iceland. Statistically, with 4,200 births every year, there should have been about 20. There were none. That\u2019s because they were all aborted. Iceland isn\u2019t alone; 98% of fetuses identified with Downs Syndrome in Denmark are aborted; France 77%, US 67%.<\/p>\n
\tIn 2018, a test was developed to identify autism in a fetus. How many years before the incident of autism in Iceland drops to zero?<\/p>\n
\tMeanwhile, courts, and health-care bureaucracies, continue to redefine \u201clife\u201d and \u201cviability.\u201d How many years, assuming the trend continues, before parents can choose to let a child die after birth, if it\u2019s born with some physical defect? The governor of Virginia, himself a pediatrician, has said that whether a child who somehow survived an attempted abortion is allowed to survive should be a matter decided by the doctor and the mother.<\/p>\n
\tWhen does that translate into care of elderly who are having difficulty communicating and also can\u2019t survive on their own? What about someone in a long-term care facility, with no family? Start with the unpleasant people: he\u2019s unpleasant, elderly, and an extreme bigot? He\u2019s not independently viable, he\u2019s not loved, he\u2019s not contributing to society. Why can\u2019t the state just let him die?<\/p>\n
\tIf you believe in a soul, that\u2019s an easy answer. If you don\u2019t, you need to ask yourself this question: what happens to you if you lose your family, get old, and then someone defines you as unpleasant and bigoted?<\/p>\n
\tWords are important; definitions are important. This power is the real answer to the \u201cWhy\u201d asked above, the issue behind the litmus test of abortion; it\u2019s about ceding \u201clife\u201d to the courts and ultimately to government. That\u2019s what is at stake in our courts today\u2026<\/p>\n
Copyright 2020 Arrias
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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