This is not a good moment in history to speak truth on some matters. The curtain is coming down on civil informed debate on some issues as strident voices now insist that theirs is the only view that can be countenanced. Those with any memory of history will recognise this sort of language as the precursor to totalitarianism.
The Austrian psychologist, Viktor Frankl, survived the horrors of no less than four Nazi concentration camps. When he reflected on his experience, he wrote: “I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Majdanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin but rather at the desks and lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.”[1]
So we need to be vigilant and watch out (and call out) uncivil language from today’s opinion leaders, be it from the extreme left or right. But dare I? The Old Testament prophet, Amos, spoke of a time when the prudent were forced to keep quiet because “the times are evil” (Amos 5:13). It’s extraordinary, isn’t it that we now have to worry about such things.
Having once been a research biologist, do I keep quiet about the fact that a human foetus feels pain after 20 weeks gestation? The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, voted against a foetus being given pain relief before being dismembered (usually) in a late term abortion. It is impossible for me to comprehend why. Would the administration of pain relief be tacit admission that the foetus was in fact a human being? What Andrews has pushed through as law is unconscionable barbarism, a barbarism that is a shame on any nation. It is a million miles away from authentic, life-honouring Christianity––which, in case Andrews has forgotten, is adhered to by 51% of the Australian population.
And where were the weak-kneed opposition Liberal Party in the debate? Shame on you for going to water even in the face of scientific evidence. Have you really been so caught in the headlights of popularist wokism that you have kissed your principles goodbye? By your inaction, you are helping to herald a new era of barbarism.
Mothers in pre-Christian Rome would put their unwanted babies on the roadside either to die or be picked up by a stranger to be raised as a slave. Some of the mothers had been raped themselves as slaves, or had become pregnant as the result of being used as playthings by the rich and powerful. Babies born to them faced a terrible plight. Daniel Andrews has reverted, in part, to this same barbarism by enshrining in law that all foetuses that survive abortion should be left to die if the mother and two doctors agree to it.[2]
I confess to being lost for words!
The decision is now a very different one from “aborting a foetus”. It is now killing a baby. The feminist argument, “It’s my body, I can do what I like” no longer applies, because there is now another body lying in the next room dying of neglect. That baby should rightly enjoy protection both from the law and from the Hyppocratic oath doctors have to give when promising to preserve life.
Similarly, allowing a baby to die cannot be said to be done to ensure the safety of the mother. She has already given birth. Preserving the life of the mother is currently the only reason for terminating a viable baby under South Australian law (section 82A of the Criminal Law Consolidation Act). So, as the South Australian government now contemplates following the state of Victoria’s lead, it will be considering something very different.
I fear for the sort of society we will hand to our grandchildren. So please do what you can to ensure that theirs is a good inheritance by writing to your politicians now. I did, and received a fairly terse and unsympathetic letter back from Vickie Chapman (the current Liberal Attorney General for South Australia) who is pushing for the Andrews laws to be implemented in my state. Her reply was a disappointment.
So: voters, take note!
[1] Viktor E. Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy, R. and C. Winston (tr.), (New York: Knof, 1955).
[2] There were 310 late term abortions in the state of Victoria in 2016. Ten percent of them were born alive.
