Finally it hit the headlines. After over three decades of an abominably perverse practice of reckless abortions, and unimaginable work ethics, Dr. Kermit Gosnell finally goes to prison. Reactions have been typically razor sharp and divided. Anti-abortionists see blood in anger. Pro- abortionists call it an exception. The choral chant and the rancor notwithstanding, more questions than solutions hog the limelight. And it’s time we answer them.
How on earth, such a gruesome practice flourished for such a long period of time? What has religion got to do with a medical opinion? Why can’t, unlike other medical guidelines, the criteria for abortion be left to medical societies and organizations?
But before that, let’s get the facts straight. Medicine with abiding submission has bowed down to religion and politics like no other profession. To treat or not to treat, to feed or not to feed, to live or not to live…for every medical quagmire faced religion threw its tentacles, politicians thundered the podium.
Which is not to say, medicine needs to be quarantined. There is scope for interaction, there is need for debate. But when it comes to matters of human health, it is best left to the experts. Scientific guidelines, not quasi opinions must govern delicate medical issues. More so in fundamental matters like pregnancy, where a mother’s health and a child’s future are inseparably entwined.
It is preposterous to even comprehend that issues of such delicacies be handed over to political opinions or worse to religious factions. They can only create cracks. And cracks can only foster perversions.
Dr. Gosnell is not an exception. His acts of inducing labor and cutting the newly delivered spinal cords form only the tip of an iceberg that hides such heinous mannerisms. Across the ocean, in Ireland, we witnessed a similar offence only a few months back. This time not from one deranged doctor, but from an entire society’s inane aptitude on a 31 year old Indian dentist who died following failure to terminate the 17 week old fetus, despite her deteriorating condition. In short, the doctors, the hospital and the whole Irish government stood hostage to a furious Catholic law that called any abortion a murder.
Are these isolated incidents? Absolutely not. Simply said, these are manifestations of a skewed system sunk in insensitivity. If an abortion issue becomes a religious policy or an act of philanthropy, or even a political manifesto then we are in serious trouble.
The clarion call is one of a single guideline, medically attested and universally followed. A set of firmly implemented decisions encompassing all aspects of pregnancy, be it physical, emotional or social. Left to any other options, we will lose more lives, mother or child.