{"id":1262,"date":"2011-09-23T10:43:43","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T10:43:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2011\/09\/23\/letters-40\/"},"modified":"2019-12-15T18:13:50","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T14:13:50","slug":"letters-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/letters-40\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern Knowledge and Abortion\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
Letters<\/span><\/h5>\n

By\u00a0Dr Fran\u00e7ois SW Ip\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In last weeks\u2019 edition of the Mauritius Times (issue no 3124), I read in SR Balgopal\u2019s article \u2018Abortion: Public consultations for an informed debate necessary\u2019: \u00ab\u2026and the comment of Dr Fran\u00e7ois Ip is very revealing on the ideological standpoint of this group.Dr Fran\u00e7ois Ip had this to say: \u2018D\u00e9cider de l\u00e9galiser l\u2019avortement en avan\u00e7ant des pr\u00e9textes comme le viol ou l\u2019inceste n\u2019est pas sens\u00e9.\u2019\u00bb The words attributed to me have not been said by me. What I asked on that point of rape was how killing the child resulting from a rape is going to cure the woman of her trauma. May I add that she may be made worse with a legitimate and understandable anger at the rapist who has gone scot-free.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Everybody wishes \u201cclarifying an obscure law\u201d. That law was made when knowledge about pregnancy, the development and vitality of the embryo was nebulous and incomplete and so there was a lot of debate regarding when it became truly human. With modern knowledge it has now become quite clear that from the moment of fusion of an ovule with a spermatozoon a new, unique human individual has been formed who is genetically distinct from her\/his mother and father. He\/she is not an integral part of the mother, not like, say, her tonsils, which she can dispose of as she wishes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people claim that \u201cher body belongs to her and she can use it as she pleases\u201d. Why do most people disapprove of sale of blood, of organs, of prostitution and of suicide? Society at large demands medical care for and of the attempted (and failed) suicide. What if the doctor argues that the person had claimed by his\/her gesture to dispose his\/her body as he\/she wishes?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone doubting about when a new human being is starting to be formed would do well to ask those working with In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). At each attempt the doctor must be wishing, may be even praying along with the couple concerned, that the fused cell, the zygote, would start dividing, and continue to do so in the laboratory glassware till it is ready for transposition in the prospective mother\u2019s womb as the first part of a continuum of development and growth till ripe old age.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore setting a time limit up 16 or 20 or 24 weeks would be arbitrary. Also apart from IVF, in most cases there is no knowledge as to the exact date of conception. Supposing the time is 16 weeks, would 16 weeks plus one day be disallowed?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To ignore or to brush aside modern knowledge of embryology for the purpose of legalization of abortion is tantamount to obscurantism.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Further modern medical knowledge concerns the tolerance during the whole duration of the pregnancy by the mother\u2019s immunological system of the product of conception. If after its birth any part of the child is grafted on the mother it will be rejected. I like to contrast such immune tolerance with the intolerance of the embryo in many so-called modern societies for socio-econo-politico-emotional reasons. \u201cQui veut noyer son chien, l\u2019accuse de la rage\u201d?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most abortionists do not accept that the unborn child has any rights. How, then, is it that if a doctor prescribes to a pregnant woman some substance which results in a malformation of her child that doctor will be liable to prosecution? A doctor\u2019s right to kill but not to maim?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 23 September 2011<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[10667,20986,21030,36,14253],"class_list":["post-1262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-readers-speak","tag-abortion","tag-dr-francois-sw-ip","tag-in-vitro-fertilization","tag-mauritius-times","tag-sr-balgopal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/MT-Logokk.jpg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-km","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}