Wow wWhyNot your story is in many ways similar to my ex’s that I mentioned right above you.
Her baby is now 20 years old, last I heard she graduated high school with great grades 2 years ago, and that alone is far better than I feared at her birth. She had the eye surgery you mentioned as a youngster, does wear glasses, but other than that, AFIK (and at this point my info can be considered very sketchy so don’t hold me to it) is a typical young woman. I hope you have the same continued good fortune with yours.
As for being a NICU nurse, ironically in my case, my prior gf was exactly that at another superb hospital in town. So I knew more about the ex’s situation when it happened than I would have otherwise.
Anyone who reads me here knows I am not a theist, but I am sure many would say that NICU nurses are heaven-sent, even if only metaphorically. If you have what it takes, I am sure you will find it a very rewarding position.
Thanks, not_alice! And now you know from whence my ethics in this matter are derived. Personal experience, education and a desire to reduce suffering and harm to both mother and baby.
I don’t know that I’m heaven sent, exactly, but it did occur to me at some point that as someone who wants to be a nurse and actually enjoys the environment of the NICU, tragedies and all, I do feel some sort of moral responsibility to be there. It’s certainly not the place for everyone, even if they’re fantastic nurses in other units, but I hope it’s the place for me in a few years when I’m done with my training.
See, I can’t vote on this, because you are asking my personal opinion regarding ANOTHER WOMAN’S abortion, not my OWN, and that inherently frames this as something someone else should have a say in.
My OWN personal opinion, for MYSELF, is that given the scenario laid out above, I would consider anytime past say, the 1st trimester too late. If I have not gotten around to it by then, I would carry it through and give up for adoption or keep the resulting child.
But again, I can’t make such a judgement for anyone else.
And given that scenarios vary so widely, I remain opposed to any limitations being imposed regardless.
I’m very liberal in my beliefs. It should all come down to suffering and awareness. The fetus, even if it would be born into a loving, decent home, doens’t have any intrinsic right to be born. Killing it won’t harm it, because it’s completely unaware. It would be like asking someone how they felt about being dead before they were born: the question has no meaning.
Therefore, I’m for any abortion at any time, for any reason. All ethically approved
I’m on the “brainwaves” side of the argument, by analogy with brain death. Before the brain starts doing its thing, I do not believe the fetus has personhood. After there are brainwaves, that’s a fairly useful and sufficiently (if not completely) non-arbitrary way of determining that it’s a (legal or ethical) “person” now and not just a clump of developing cells.
You asked my opinion on ethics and I am (thus far) one of two people who chose “sometime before month 8.”
Why did I choose that? I can’t rightly tell you. But I can tell you why I didn’t choose the two most popular answers
I didn’t choose “Abortion is ethically allowable at any time before birth” because that option allows for scenarios like a woman going into labor and saying “you know what? This whole baby thing was a mistake and I want it aborted.”
That sounds ridiculous on its face and, I’ll agree, it’s about as extreme an example as you can get. But your poll’s second choice was “any time before the 9th month” which means that this answer should allow for decisions to be made anytime after that.
I didn’t choose “Abortion is ethically allowable only when the fetus could not be viable outside the womb,” because we run into all sorts of other problems in this scenario. What is viable? Could you be viable at 5 months as a 1 pound baby spending the next 6 months in ICU and having lifelong problems? Yes. But how is that a fair benchmark? And should women in 1980 have been granted up until the 7th month because medical science wasn’t at a stage where viability was an option? By selectiing this option, we continually shrink the woman’s window of a right to choose as medical technology grows stronger.
Neither option seemed right to me.
So I picked 8 months or before. I mean, honestly, if you can’t make up your mind by then…
I’m probably too pro-life to answer this question, but I’m with several others in saying that there is no bright line along the way from conception to birth that really makes sense as an ethical boundary. I’m ok in principle with the first trimester as being mostly the LEGAL boundary because I hope it encourages women in need of abortions to have them earlier in the pregnancy, when we (as society) are less aware that all it requires is tincture of time to bring a healthy baby into the world. There’s a part of me which abhors any abortion, and a part of me which recognizes that a world with safe, legal, and rare abortions is better than a world where any of those qualifiers is missing.
And in cases where a healthy baby may not result, or a healthy baby may result but at the cost of the woman’s health, I think putting the woman’s health first is generally an ethical choice. Not neccessarily the only ethical choice, not neccessarily the best choice, but in some circumstances, even a very late term abortion is an ethical choice.
But there’s no power which can compel me to click “anytime before birth”, because I worry that it sends the wrong message–makes abortion sound more neccessary and less evil.
Strongly pro-choice here, and I voted “until <blank>”. I thought about saying “until viable outside the womb”, then I reread the OP where it describes a situation in which there is no danger to the mother, the woman has adequate financial resources etc… and realized that in that situation, I feel it is unethical at any time.
However, I recognize that someone else’s opinion may be very different, and I do NOT think my opinion is so more valid that I would prevent them from being able to make that decision. Persuade? yeah… if a friend of mine were in that situation I’d try to make sure she knew of the options.
Other circumstances? rape / incest / health of mother / teen incapable of parenting… my inclination is “until viable” because after that point, the options are “deliver the baby, which will live” or “kill the baby”. I’ll drive the woman to the clinic and hold her hand beforehand and then most likely go off somewhere and cry during the procedure.
OK then, since I think the law is a representation of a system of ethics we all agree to in some social contract, but I recognize that others might draw from additional traditions, can you clarify how you decide what is “ethical” as opposed to what is “legal” or “allowed”? Is there something the rest of us can put our hands on in some sense?
If the mother herself values the future well being of the fetus more than she does her own life. Or in the gray areas of statistics, where immediate treatment for cancer (or whatever) has a high likelihood of success, and treatment two weeks later has a medium high likelihood of success, but greatly increases the likelihood that Baby will thrive.
In a perfect world, the doctor provides the appropriate information to the mother and respects her wishes in the matter.
Look, I’m sorry, but I do not wish to pick apart my thought process any furthur. I have admitted to probably being too pro-life to answer this question fairly, but I gave it my best shot.
So some random doctor, who will be subject to no pressure or regulation of course, gets to recommend which of the mother or fetus gets to live or die, and the mother has no say at all as to what the doctor’s role is, nor does the rest of society since our interests are proxied through the doctor.
