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Up from the clothes chute

Unborn should not be discarded like weeds

By GEORGI DAVIS
Published October 9, 2005

I like working in my garden. I love to see things grow and bloom. I love all the color. So I've been thinking about those plants that I buy to put in the ground.

Most of the time, I buy the plants that have already started to mature. Then I carefully place them where I think they will be most attractive. Sometimes I grow plants from seeds. It takes longer to see the results, but I like the feeling I get when I see them first pop up through the earth.

Some gardeners think these little seeds are really nothing until they start to show through the dirt. But the seeds are the potential plants. I figure that once they start to grow roots and stalks, they have become plants, even though I can't see them. Once they show through the dirt, I can cultivate them, water them, trim them and feed them.

Gardeners worth their salt will carefully weed their gardens so the weeds don't take over the flowers. I do the same thing. I decide what is a weed and what is a true plant. It's easy to pull the weeds out or spray them with weed killer.

We all assume that these weeds have no feelings, don't cry and can be tossed out without a guilty conscience. I have difficulty weeding out my flowers, digging up and throwing some of them out when they become too abundant.

Some people think of children like plants: Until a child is actually born, it is not a child. Unfortunately, unlike plants, these tiny seeds do have feelings, can feel pain and have the capability of crying. The consensus among many people is that we have the right to weed out these potential people like we would a weed in our gardens. If we don't want it, we get rid of it.

I realize that women want the right of choice. I believe they should have that right. A woman has the right to have protected or unprotected sex. She has the right to have sex or not have sex. Those are her choices.

However, if she chooses to have sex, then she should have to accept the consequences of her actions. If, as a result, a child grows, she still has the right to keep the child or give it to parents who will love it. And there are lots of potential parents out there.

Children are not plants. They are human beings, whether they have made the trip through the birth canal or not.

I firmly believe that the abortion issue was really a matter of economics. It came about as a result of the fact that there were too many children with only one parent incapable of taking care of them financially or emotionally. This was costing the government too much money in the way of welfare. It was also creating problems of child abuse and costing the government and taxpayers more money to care for these children in special homes.

Whatever the real reason, it has become law and is being debated again. Morally I can find no reason why we should have the right to take another life just because it might interfere with ours.

Sex has become a sport or a game, like bowling or leapfrog. People choose to entertain themselves this way without regard for the consequences. Their theory: If it feels good, do it. Sex is not a sport. It is the most intimate thing two people can do. It's time we reteach this concept.

Unborn children (I didn't say "weeds") should have the right to live, too.

Thought for the day: Things and people bloom where they are planted.

[Last modified October 9, 2005, 01:08:18]