Why should a helpless newborn baby be allowed to live? That’s what a duo of Australian ethicists wants to know.
In a shocking article entitled “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” that was recently published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva are advocating that a society that allows abortions also has the right to kill newborn children.
The abstract states: “By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled.”
The authors are willing to admit that handicapped children are able to live happy lives but then advocate that, because of their burden on the rest of the family, parents should have a right to put those children to death. If the test for the right to live was based on not burdening others, everyone’s life would be at risk at some point or another.
The question then becomes how burdensome must you be to merit your murder?
As the Liberty Counsel sees it, this shocking position should stir a second look at legalized abortion. If our society is unwilling to accept the right to kill newborns, and even older children, why do we allow the murder of the unborn? Liberty Counsel argues that the destruction of another human being—regardless of his age, his size or his ability—should never be allowed.
“Abortion opens the door to infanticide. If you can kill a child in the womb, even up to the moment before birth, then there is no logical reason to protect life after birth,” says Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “A human being begins at the moment of conception and should be afforded legal protection at all stages of life. This is the only logically defensible position. It is shocking to see people advocating killing children after they are born. It is just as shocking to see people advocating killing them before they are born.”
