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Kathmandu Saturday March 10, 2001 Falgun 27, 2057.
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Play it safe
Abortion is always a tricky issue, and sometimes local circumstances make it
trickier still. The basic divide is between the pro-life and pro-choice lobbies. The
pro-life argument is a strong one with ramifications extending into morality, ethics and
man's perception of himself. It boils down to this. Can man arrogate to himself the right
to decide at what point in the process of procreation a new human life begins. An abortion
carried out after a new life is considered to have begun amounts to homicide, morally and
ethically if not legally as well. The ethics of life is not confined to abortion. It crops
up with regard to cloning, surrogate motherhood, eugenics and euthanasia. As science
further unravels the mystery of life, this ethical consideration can be expected to recur
in other forms. The argument of the pro-choice lobby, on the other hand, turns around the
right of woman to have greater control over her own body and her own life. It derives in
part from the centrality of the individual that has been key to modern thinking ever since
the European Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment so called. It is one of those
arguments that will never be won conclusively one way or the other, and one will just have
to leave it at that.
In our own country, which is somewhat on the conservative side over abortion,
the twist to the debate lies in the fact that the full weight of anti-abortion law seems
to fall only on the poor and the ignorant. Those who have money and savy can always avail
themselves of illegal but nevertheless readily available abortion clinics, or if
necessary, just step across the open border for the needful. The law is not serving its
intended purpose but only aggravating a rich-poor divide. The pro-choice lobby has called
for a loosening of the legal strait-jacket. That does, however, bring the risk of opening
the floodgates and promoting promiscuity and infidelity. The choice is clearly a fine
balancing act that has to weigh all the pros and cons. Whether the llth Civil Code
amendment bill, which seeks to partially legalize abortion and is currently under
discussion in parliament, does this or not is not clear. Also under consideration for
amendment is the provision on right to parental property for women. And it has been shown
fairly conclusively that economic dependency on others is the main cause of much of the
evil that women suffer in our society including the evil of unwanted pregnancies. Indeed
that is one of the reasons why women should be given a stake in parental property. This of
course is not to ignore the arguments against. Giving women greater economic clout might
be a good way to tackle the big issue that abortion has become in our country without at
the same time getting caught up in the pro-choice, pro-life tug-of-war. It may be a good
way to play it safe, both for women and for society.
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