Ethicists Argue for Acceptance of After-Birth Abortions | TheBlaze.com

Ethicists Argue for Acceptance of After-Birth Abortions | TheBlaze.com

Ethicists Argue in Favor of ‘After-Birth Abortions‘ as Newborns ’Are Not Persons’

• Posted on February 27, 2012 at 3:38pm by Liz Klimas
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Two ethicists working with Australian universities argue in the latest online edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics that if abortion of a fetus is allowable, so to should be the termination of a newborn.

Alberto Giubilini (Photo: Academia.edu)

Alberto Giubilini with Monash University in Melbourne and Francesca Minerva at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne write that in “circumstances occur[ing] after birth such that they would have justified abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible.”

The two are quick to note that they prefer the term “after-birth abortion“ as opposed to ”infanticide.” Why? Because it “[emphasizes] that the moral status of the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus (on which ‘abortions’ in the traditional sense are performed) rather than to that of a child.” The authors also do not agree with the term euthanasia for this practice as the best interest of the person who would be killed is not necessarily the primary reason his or her life is being terminated. In other words, it may be in the parents’ best interest to terminate the life, not the newborns.

The circumstances, the authors state, where after-birth abortion should be considered acceptable include instances where the newborn would be putting the well-being of the family at risk, even if it had the potential for an “acceptable” life. The authors cite Downs Syndrome as an example, stating that while the quality of life of individuals with Downs is often reported as happy, “such children might be an unbearable burden on the family and on society as a whole, when the state economically provides for their care.”

Francesca Minerva (Photo: Academia.edu)

This means a newborn whose family (or society) that could be socially, economically or psychologically burdened or damaged by the newborn should have the ability to seek out an after-birth abortion. They state that after-birth abortions are not preferable over early-term abortions of fetuses but should circumstances change with the family or the fetus in the womb, then they advocate that this option should be made available.

The authors go on to state that the moral status of a newborn is equivalent to a fetus in that it cannot be considered a person in the “morally relevant sense.” On this point, the authors write:

Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’. We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her.

[...]

Merely being human is not in itself a reason for ascribing someone a right to life. Indeed, many humans are not considered subjects of a right to life: spare embryos where research on embryo stem cells is permitted, fetuses where abortion is permitted, criminals where capital punishment is legal.

Giubilini and Minerva believe that being able to understand the value of a different situation, which often depends on mental development, determines personhood. For example, being able to tell the difference between an undesirable situation and a desirable one. They note that fetuses and newborns are “potential persons.” The authors do acknowledge that a mother, who they cite as an example of a true person, can attribute “subjective” moral rights to the fetus or newborn, but they state this is only a projected moral status.

The authors counter the argument that these “potential persons” have the right to reach that potential by stating it is “over-ridden by the interests of actual people (parents, family, society) to pursue their own well-being because, as we have just argued, merely potential people cannot be harmed by not being brought into existence.”

And what about adoption? Giubilini and Minerva write that, as for the mother putting the child up for adoption, her emotional state should be considered as a trumping right. For instance, if she were to “suffer psychological distress” from giving up her child to someone else — they state that natural mothers can dream their child will return to them — then after-birth abortion should be considered an allowable alternative.

The authors do not tackle the issue of what age an infant would be considered a person.

The National Catholic Register thinks that these authors are right — once you accept their ideas on personhood. The Register states that the argument made by the ethicists is almost pro-life in that it “highlights the absurdity of the pro-abortion argument”:

The second we allow ourselves to become the arbiters of who is human and who isn’t, this is the calamitous yet inevitable end. Once you say all human life is not sacred, the rest is just drawing random lines in the sand.

First Things, a publication of the The Institute on Religion and Public Life, notes that while this article doesn’t mean the law could — or would — allow after-birth abortions in future medical procedures, arguments such as “the right to dehydrate the persistently unconscious” began in much the same way in bioethics journals.

It is sad that such people who argue Pro Infanticide (Abortions) are living breathing NON-Aborted fetus's.

Through out time Cultures, Nations, Tribes, Cults have practiced forms of Infanticide, whether it be Aztec or other Sacrifices to their Idol gods, or just what their society chooses at the time to be UN-Desirables, or Sub Human. So with weak excuses they allow death, promote murder of human life.

Nazi Germany did murder all un-desirables, from handicap people of all ages, to old or injured, or Wrong birth nationality, any reason to create the perfect ultimate race of humans. Such eugenics is Evil, and taught from ONE source only. Lucifer the fallen one even the Devil, Satan and all the other names he is known by.

In the Holy Scriptures it teaches he was Cast from Heaven for Rebellion against God his Father, those who followed him also were cast out, sent to Earth with the Punishment (or one of them) Never to receive a Physical Human Body. Thus one of his number 1 goals is to destroy, control, all of the Human race any way he can to get even or back at his Heavenly Father and his plan for humanities Eternal progression.

So those who seek to make excuses for such Evil acts are but following the Master of all Evil and Lies - Lucifer. Simple as that.

I suggest all look deep into your heart and if you have a soul, any ethics or morals of civility. Pray and learn who God your Father in Heaven is, a Loving God. And learn to gain a testimony of him, then seek to live your lives as Jesus Christ did by Example, and it will only help others of humanity through out the World.

May some day this great evil stop.

Stephen Huls.

Cancelled Flight From Atlanta To Houston-UNBELIEVABLE!! AirTran Flight 297, from Atlanta to Houston THE FULL STORY

Cancelled Flight From Atlanta To Houston-UNBELIEVABLE!! AirTran Flight 297, from Atlanta to Houston THE FULL STORY

Cancelled Flight From Atlanta To Houston-UNBELIEVABLE!! AirTran Flight 297, from Atlanta to Houston THE FULL STORY

by Stephen Huls on Monday, February 27, 2012 at 7:36pm ·

Cancelled Flight From Atlanta To Houston-UNBELIEVABLE!!
AirTran Flight 297, from Atlanta to Houston
Enough with political correctness. We must all have the courage to speak out and demand that everyone is treated the same.
Everyone needs to read this ..... & pass it on !
And to think that Fox News was the only channel that reported this.Brassy!
In my opinion, the Muslims are all getting very brave now. Read Tedd Petruna's story below. Can you imagine, our own news media now are so politically correct that they are afraid to report that these were all Muslims? Unbelievable. Thank God for people like Tedd Petruna.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I, Gene Hackemack, received this email from my good friend Tedd Petruna. He is, a diver at the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Lab) facility at NASA Houston. I used to work with Tedd who happened to be on the AirTran Flight 297, from Atlanta to Houston .
"One week ago, I went to Ohio on business and to see my father. On Tuesday, the 17th, I returned home. If you read the papers the 18th you may have seen a blurb about where an Air Tran flight was canceled from Atlanta to Houston due to a man who refused to get off of his cell phone before take- off. The story was only on Fox News. That was NOT what really happened.
I was seated in 1st class coming home. Eleven Muslim men got on the plane in full Muslim attire. Two of them sat in 1st class and the rest seated themselves throughout the plane, in coach class, all the way to the back. As the plane taxied out to the runway, the stewardesses gave the safety spiel that we are all so familiar with.
At that time, one of the men, in 1st class, got on his cell and called one of his companions back in coach. He proceeded to talk on the phone in Arabic very loudly and very, very aggressively. This activity took the 1st stewardess out of action for she repeatedly told the man that cell phones were not permitted at that time. He ignored her as if she were not there. The man, who answered the phone back in the coach section, did the same and this took out the 2nd stewardess. Further back in the plane, at the same time, two younger Muslims, one in the back on the aisle, and one sitting in front of him by the window, began to show footage of a porno video they had taped the night before. They were very loud about it.
Now, Muslim men are only permitted to view porno women prior to Jihad. If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the woman via mirror with his back to her. (Don't ask me, I don't make the rules, but I've studied Muslims.)
The 3rd stewardess informed the two men that they were not to have electronic devices on at this time.
One of the men said "shut up infidel dog!"
The stewardess attempted to take the camcorder and the Muslim began to scream in her face in Arabic. At that exact moment, all eleven of the men got up and started to walk throughout the cabin. I guess that because of the noise, the flight crew must have decided that there was something amiss and changed the plane's directions to head back to the terminal.
The commotion and noise was reaching a feverish pitch, and at this point I had had enough! I got up and started towards the back of 1st class, when I heard a voice behind me, from another Texan twice my size, say "I got your back." Then I grabbed the man, who had been on the cell phone, by the arm and said "You WILL sit down in your seat or you WILL be thrown from this plane!" As I "led" him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed him back to his seat. I then grabbed the 2nd man and said, "You WILL do the same!"
He protested loudly, but my adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go also. Just as I escorted him forward, the plane stopped, the doors opened and three TSA agents and four police officers entered the cabin. Myself and my new Texas friend were told to cease and desist for they had the situation under control.
I was quite happy to oblige actually. There was still some sort of commotion in the back, but within moments, all eleven Muslim men were escorted off the plane. The TSA agents then had their luggage unloaded. We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had happened.
Then suddenly, the door opened again and in walked all eleven Muslim men! Stone faced, eyes front and robotic, (the only way I can describe it) they were reseated. The stewardess from the back had been in tears and when she saw the men, she was having NONE of it! Since I was up front, I heard and saw the whole ordeal. She told the TSA agents that there was NO WAY she was staying on the plane with the Muslim men. The agent told her that they had searched the men and were going through their luggage with a fine tooth comb. However, nothing had been found and that the men were allowed to proceed on to Houston .
The captain and co-captain came out of the cockpit and told the agent, "We and our crew will not fly this plane!" After a word or two, the entire crew, luggage in tow, left the plane. Five minutes later, the cabin door opened again and a whole new crew walked on. Again, this was where I had had enough! I got up and asked the TSA agent, "What the hell is going on?
I was told to take my seat. The airlines and TSA were sorry for the delay and we would be home shortly. I said "I'm getting off this plane". The stewardess sternly told me that she could not allow me to get off. Now I'm really mad! I said "I am a grown man who bought this ticket, who's time is mine with a family at home and I am going through that door, or I'm going through that door with you under my arm, but I AM going through that door!"
And then I heard a voice behind me say "So am I!" Then everyone behind us started to get up and say the same thing. Within two minutes, I was walking off that plane where I was met by more TSA agents who asked me to write a statement about the incident. I had five hours to kill at this point waiting for the next flight to Houston , so why the hell not give them my statement. Due to the amount of people who got off that flight, it was canceled. I was supposed to be in Houston at 6 PM, but I finally got there at 12:30 AM. If you don't believe this, look up the date and then Flight 297 from Atlanta to Houston .
If this wasn't a terrorism dry run, I don't know what one is. The terrorists wanted to see how TSA would handle it, how the crew would handle it, and how the passengers would handle it. I'm telling this to you because I want you to know. The threat IS real. I saw it with my own eyes."
Tedd Petruna
I suggest you keep this going until this incident reaches the email of all POLITICIANS and the news media!

"Rainbow in the Night" Official Music Video

Blaze Exclusive: First-Ever Music Video About the Holocaust Is a ‘Call to Arms’

• Posted on February 22, 2012 at 8:27am by Tiffany Gabbay
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Last November, The Blaze reported on the production of the first-ever music video about the Holocaust. The song, entitled “Rainbow in the Night,” debuted January 27th to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Rainbow in the Night” offers a powerful message in short form, specifically intended for a young post-millennial audience, as a reminder of the unspeakable cruelty inflicted on innocent men, women and children during the Holocaust. The video incorporates stunning cinematography, a heartrending score, and emotionally-wrought lyrics to produce a snapshot of the darkest time in the history of the Jewish people as seen through the eyes of a survivor.
The production, set against a backdrop of despair and hopelessness, reveals the emotional journey of an innocent child forced to leave his home for an extermination camp. After enduring the atrocities leveled against him by his captors, finally liberated, the child (now an adult in the video), recalls his journey. He also conveys the inspiration he felt upon reflecting on better days he hoped would come – all of which strengthened and sustained his resolve to survive.
Triumphantly culminating in the hope for a brighter future, ”Rainbow in the Night,” according to its producers, serves as a “euphoric tribute to the indomitable human spirit that enabled the Jewish people to survive against all odds,” as well as a “call to arms, to rekindle the spark of Jewish pride and unity among Jews worldwide as [they] continue to rebuild the generations that were destroyed by the Nazis.”

I had the pleasure of sitting down with the creators of ”Rainbow in the Night,” director Daniel Finkelman and composer-producer Cecelia Margules, to discuss the motivation behind their poignant rendition and to glean insight into their hopes for future generations, whose collective memory of this grim chapter in human history is now fading from view. “A rainbow represents hope,” explained Cecelia, and “night was the Holocaust.”
Filmed in New York, Krakow, and inside the Majdanek concentration camp, this first ever music video depicting the Holocaust was directed by Daniel, and includes a cast of approximately 60 men and women – both Jewish and non-Jewish – and over 800 Jewish children.
“This was not a set,” explained Cecelia and Daniel. “It was the real place.” These atrocities took place at Majdanek, and so the video captured the horrific and the emotional experience so vividly. Cecelia believes the haunting score, profound lyrics – performed by tenor Cantor Yaakov Lemmer – and visual imagery will convey the “tenacity” of the Jewish people who endured unthinkable tragedy and survived against all odds.
Cecelia ceded that while “we were decimated to a great extent,” as a people, “we survived.”
But like so many who share Jewish heritage, Daniel, too, was compelled to create this video for deeply personal reasons. For one, he is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and was profoundly inspired by the iconic film ”Schindler’s List.”
Yet Daniel brings with him the added element of being a survivor himself, as he and his family lived in Tzfat, Israel, during the second Lebanon War. For those unfamiliar, Tzfat was ground zero in 2006 — with some 4000 Katysusha rockets fired into northern Israel by Hezbollah, over 700 of them landed in Tzfat. Many civilians at the time time – especially those with large families and the elderly – were particularly vulnerable, lacking the ability to flee to safety.

Daniel recalled the devastation he witnessed as rockets and mortars fell directly into his own backyard.

Daniel, who is American-born, fortunately escaped through Jerusalem and returned to the U.S. so that he and his family could live in safety and security. He added that he is “in shock to this day,” having lived through conditions one only reads about in newspapers. For Daniel, the war was perhaps the greatest catalyst for making ”Rainbow in the Night,“ as he came to the haunting realization that his ”life as a Jew in [his] own country is not stable.”

He said the video is a message to those who would seek to destroy Israel and the Jewish people to: “Leave us alone.”
“You almost extinguished us. You killed us. What do you want from us? What do you want Iran? What do you want Arab world?”
Cecelia, whose own mother was a Holocaust survivor from Poland, found this labor of love a cathartic experience. According to the composer, her mother spoke faithfully at schools and throughout the community in order to educate others about the history of the Holocaust. Cecelia drew inspiration from her mother, who wrote about the experience of returning to Poland in order to find her father’s grave in the book “In Search of Ashes.”

When asked why they think the Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism is on the rise, both Cecelia and Daniel looked to Iran, citing how even the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his warped world-view is now entertained on a wide scale – even in the halls of academia.
As the conversation steered toward higher learning, Cecelia and Daniel also cited the abundance of anti-Israel sentiment by professors, activist groups and the BDS (boycott and divestment) campaign so prevalent on university campuses today. While many have come to expect such an environment in elite institutions like Columbia and Harvard, Cecelia ironically pointed out Brooklyn college – once a bedrock of a thriving Jewish community – where a professor was recently suspended, but later reinstated, after preaching anti-Semitism on a regular basis.
Another reason Daniel and Cecelia believe Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism is rising is because younger generations are less connected to their forebears than their predecessors were. Now, instead of having a close relative – a parent or grandparent – who survived the Holocaust, younger generations may only have a great-grandparent or distant relative affected by these events, if anyone at all. Thus, in their quest for assimilation, younger generations have abandoned their heritage.
“You want to remove yourself and not be burdened by this heavy past,” explained Cecilia. She reminded that even as Hitler rose to power, many Jewish people in Germany considered themselves German, rather than Jewish first.

Cecelia, who wrote the piece last year for a Holocaust commemoration, said that while at times wrought with emotion, she found the process of creating “Rainbow in the Night” “invigorating.”
“I feel good about what I did,” she beamed.
When asked about the obstacles they encountered abroad while working on a project of this magnitude, Daniel and Cecelia noted that bureaucracy in the Polish government held up their permit to operate at one point, but that eventually the production was given a green light.

Historically, while there were indeed Poles who were opposed to the extermination of Jews, there were many others who stood by cheering heartily as entire families were led away to ghettos and death camps by the Nazis. Sadly, it was not uncommon to see a group of Polish men, women and children all too happy to take over the apartments and personal effects these victims were forced to leave behind.
In the spirit of accuracy, Daniel and Cecelia wished to capture such maddening moments from this snapshot in history. Some Polish cast members, however, took issue with their countrymen being portrayed in what they considered a negative light. This notion is quite apparent in the video.
While profoundly important, the subject matter is, of course, painful, and there were a number of moments throughout our conversation that caused the soul to swell with emotion – from the story of how a German nurse saved Cecelia‘s mother’s life in the concentration camp, to the chilling accounts of the second Lebanon War Daniel and his family barely survived as rockets and mortar shells peppered their home.
The most profound moment of the interview, perhaps, came when Cecelia and Daniel explained the “miracle” that happened in Poland, when, after a massive downpour following the conclusion of shooting, a huge rainbow appeared directly over the Majdanek concentration camp. Everyone present, from the cantor to the cast and crew, beheld this magnificent and, indeed, rarest of sights. According to Daniel and Cecelia, even those not Jewish became believers. Even more incredibly, the actual rainbow was captured and is featured below, courtesy of photographer, Agnieszka Traczewska.

The newly released, full-length “Rainbow in the Night” video follows. Its production scale is enormous. While most music videos are up and running in a matter of days or weeks, “Rainbow in the Night” took nearly half-a-year to finish, and includes a cast of hundreds filmed on two continents. Please watch the video below and share with others:
On a final note, due to their hostile climate, university campuses are among the first places Cecelia and Daniel hope to have “Rainbow in the Night” aired. The video is also slated to appear at Holocaust education institutions and centers across the country. In terms of the future, Daniel and Cecilia hope this video will travel as far as Iran. Interestingly, one of the places this video is also widely available is on Neo-Nazi websites, which may be a perfect indication why this video-message is so sorely needed.
For more information on the video and on how you can become involved, please visit: Rainbow in the Night

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