friday, january 23. 1981
daily nebraskan
page 5
to the editor
'Ultimate discrimination'
It is great to be alive! despite circumstances of pre
judice, physical deformities, and unfulfilled dreams, there
truly is hope as long as lite exists. There is a chance for
happiness.
We all have this chance. However, this chance is denied
to over one million unborn babies annually. Collectively
labeled as unworthy of the life guaranteed all other
human beings, theirs is the ultimate indiscrimination. Why
does this discrimination continue?
First of all, a developing baby has several strikes against
him. Because he is so tiny, he is easily disregarded and
almost as easily discarded. It is difficult for us to identify
with a person at this stage of development. But what bio
logist can deny that our uniqueness was programmed into
each of our cells before birth? We were all at the
embryonic stage once; so tiny as to be imperceptible to
our mothers, but needing only food and time to grow into
recognizable human beings.
Unable to remember this time, we can desensitize
ourselves to the real danger the unborn child is in. In our
society, it is easy to find support groups that deny some
thing important is lost when a woman chooses abortion.
Abortionists label pro-lifers as too emotionally involved in
the issues, because they have desensitized themselves to
the pain involved in the loss of the unborn child.
It has been eight destructive years for the tiniest
brothers and sisters of all mankind, since the Supreme
Court ruling. Since then, the abortion issue has tragically
touched millions of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters
and friends. Perhaps the deaths of these unborn infants
will point up the significance of the Supreme Court's
mistake. We can only work for a Human Life Amend
ment . . . and hope.
Dorothy Dobesh
Graduate, Secondary Education
Innocent lives' remembered
To some people January 22 is just another day on the
calendar. Yet eight years ago, seven men blackened the
date with the stroke of a pen. For it was January 22, 1973
that the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand.
Since that time some eight million innocent children have
been slaughtered, fhat is more than have been killed in
all of the wars that the U.S. has been in since its origin.
It is for these innocent lives that we dedicate this
week from January 18-14. For you see, whereas some
people claim that the unborn is only a mass of cells, a
part of the woman's body to treat as she wishes, there are
Sordid facts ....
Continued from Page 4
There you are. A mere three weeks ago, the President's
Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties said
we shouldn't try to solve the problems of the Northeast
ern cities. We should empty them.
They want the invisible hand of migration (I think
that's Adam Smith's Migration) to take its course. All the
wretched refuse of our teeming cities
would make their way to the Southwest.
At the time I thought this was a ludicrous idea, but at
the time I wasn't quite so wretched.
Now, as a patriotic gesture, I am going to volunteer for
temporary refugee status. I think we should all apply for
a federal grant, an experiment in returning to those won
derful yesteryears of migratory living.
While they consider my proposal, I think I will turn my
electric blanket into a jumpsuit.
1981 The Boston Globe Newspaper Company
Washington Post Writers Group
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others who recognize this as human life from the moment
of conception. And once you recognize this as human life,
then the unborn must have all the rights that you and I
have. It is for these reasons that a woman's so called,
"right to privacy," must be superseded by the child's
"right to life."
I find it hard to believe that anyone, who is informed,
could call an unborn child anything but human life. It has
been medically proven that within ten days, the fetus, by
secreting powerful hormones, completely controls the
woman's body throughout the pregnancy. The fetus is a
separate being within the womb possibly having a blood
type completely different from that of his mother.
By three weeks the heartbeat can be recorded. And at
six weeks, brain waves can be recorded. It has been medi
cally proven that the unborn child can feel pain, that it
can taste and that they can learn. This is all pretty re
markable for just a mass of tissue.
Since most women don't even know that they are preg
nant until they are four to six weeks along, the child al
ready has developed most of these attributes.
These are all medically proven facts. Every day our
medical advances are saving more and more premature
babies. Today we can have some as early as eighteen
"weeks, and tomorrow, even younger.
Steve Lang
Member of UNL Students for L.I.F E
Pregnant woman has rights
Is it not true that every person has the inalienable right
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Anything
that would threaten this right must then be eliminated.
In the case of the Pro-Life moemcnt, I'm afraid that as its
supporters are trying to protect the rights of an unborn
fetus, they are infringing upon the rights of other people
to decide what is best for them.
If a woman were forced to have a child because abor
tion had been declared illegal, both she and the baby
could live miserable lives as a result. The resentment
toward the unwanted child could manifest itself as physi
cal as well as mental abuse. Is this baby, who is possibly be
ing beaten and in other ways abused, better off for being
born? Another consideration that must be made, deals
with a baby that would be born disabled. These both are
high prices for a child to pay. Just as one should have the
right to be born, shouldn't we consider the right to be
born loved, wanted and healthy?
The right to hold the Pro-life opinion should be re
spected just as the right to oppose this opinion should be
respected. Obviously, abortion is not for everyone, but
there are those who feel that it can be an acceptable solu
tion to a very prevalent social concern. Shouldn't abor
tion be available to those who hold this opinion?
When facing this monumental question, we cannot rely
totally upon emotion. We must be able to look at the
problem of unwanted pregnancy just as that -a problem
to be dealt with. Abortion need not be the only solution.
Rather it could be considered one of many alternatives.
I am not advocating a cold, calculating society. I am, how
ever, advocating a society with compassion for the preg
nant woman. Her life will be seriously altered by the birth
of a child. If the alteration has adverse effects on her life,
shouldn't she be able to choose not to have the child, thus
protecting her right to the pursuit of happiness?
The issue has acceptable arguments on both sides. In
the end, however, we must face the fact that we are
dealing with people. When dealing with individuals, we
cannot have a law that is acceptable and compatable with
a few. We must have a law that will be acceptable to those
affected by that law. This law would be one that gives the
individual the chance to choose.
Alice Schuda
Sophomore, English
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