Religion,
Politics and Life often make a heady mix. And if you have to choose
between the three of them, what would be your answer?
My answer is Life.
 |
| Life |
And I strongly feel your answer would not be any different.
But
the big bad world of ours sometimes does not see eye to eye with us on
such important and grave matters. Misplaced priorities, sometimes give
an upper hand to Religion and Politics.
This blog post is fueled by this news article in the Times of India today.
A snippet from the article is below.
~~~
Church ups the ante on Ireland's abortion bill
A
strong collision seems inevitable between the government and the Church
of Ireland with the Catholic Church on Saturday threatening to
excommunicate members who vote for the abortion legislation in its
current format.
..
..
An
anti-abortion vigil saw Cardinal Sean Brady urging 5,500 people at the
rally to lobby their politicians over a draft abortion bill.
~~~
Disturbing, Isn't it?
The sequence of events were as below.
Savita Halappanavar, an Indian national, passed away in Ireland last year because of complexities arising out of her pregnancy.
She was denied an abortion since it was illegal in Ireland. Women in Ireland have to travel to England for this process.
Her
death caused mass furore across India. An innocent life could not be
saved because a medical procedure could not be carried out citing local
laws. The fact these local laws were influenced by religion were a
matter of worry.
However, the Irish government took a learning from this incident.
According to this news article,
the Irish cabinet agreed for new terms under the abortion bill. Under
the new legislation, abortion would be allowed if the pregnant lady's
life is at risk.
The new decision looks like below ( quoted verbatim )
~~
Under
the terms of the bill three consultants would be asked to review a case
and all must agree for a termination to proceed, Irish media reported.
If
a termination is not approved a woman would be able to appeal to
another panel of three doctors but they must also be unanimous for it to
go ahead.
~~
However, this decision has not gone down well with the Church. The Church has made the following comment.
~~
Catholic
bishops have branded changes to Ireland's strict abortion regime as
morally unacceptable saying "if approved it would make the direct and
intentional killing of unborn children lawful in Ireland."
~~
It would be a definitely a step back if the new law is not passed citing religious views and opinions.
In
this particular case, the life of an unborn individual is put before a
living individual. And this irrational view ( at least that is what I
feel ) makes the process of being a mother a risky proposition.
I
will sincerely hope that the law makers adopt a judicious view of the
situation, and take a decision which is not influenced by religion, and
would benefit the women in the country.
And save a life when a unforseen situation comes up.
P.S. It would also be worthwhile to read the below case study from Freakonomics.
It
highlights how the legalization of abortion in the USA in the late
1960s resulted in reduced crime rate in the late 1980s. Read the study here.
P.S.2.
In a similar view, the Church has never advocated the usage of the
contraceptive pill, or the usage of contraception. You can read more
about it in my blogs listed below. However, the benefits of these
contraception are well proven and have stood the test of time.
Hope Life wins, over Religion and Politics.
~~
All views are strictly personal.
~~
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