instinctively...

Ramblings from a long train ride...

Every animal - with or without a soul - has an instinctive fear. There is some type of natural internal force that intructs us to guard our own life, and the lives of those in our family circle, for fear of losing our most valuable possession - LIFE.

Humans could do a lot of good by considering the lessons learnt from a close analysis of animal behaviour. Notice how an animal knows instinctively how important it is to produce offspring? There is a point somewhere in their life cycle where an internal "click" happens and the animal knows (instinctively!) that one of the most important (if not the most important) purpose for its existence is to produce offspring. Pass the family genes. Reproduce. Encourage the continuity of the species. Protect the bloodline. Ensure survival.

An animal knows how important - or better yet; how sacred - it is to have children. In the animal kingdom (which, by the way, humanity is a part of), motherhood is prized because without it, animals of all species (yes, including our own) would eventually cease to exist.

You're all thinking "thanks for the deep biology lesson Joy, but what's the point?" Well I pose this question... What has humanity done to the sanctity of motherhood???? The more I think about this, the angrier I become. Where is the pride in being able to create and nurture life? For a species so advanced in intellect, emotion, knowledge and technology; for a species that seems so adamant in their pursuit to improve the quality and efficiency of life, why are we so happy to hinder the creation of it?

We are a species that encourages its fellow humans to take pride in scientific or spiritual discoveries and achievements, yet we treat the ability to create the most complex, beautiful, mysterious, delicate, and powerful of all creations with such fear and disdain. How is it that humans can so casually destroy life and desecrate it, when the lowliest and simplest of all animals hold life - and the ability to create it - in such high regard?

It would be easy to justify my intense anger towards advocates of RU-486 with sound Catholic doctrine. But my reasons for contempt against this drug are far more basic than spiritual theology. Whether or not I believe a foetus is alive or dead, with or without a soul; it is the fact that we have allowed ourslves to endanger the life of a potential mother and destroying the potential for life to be created that is so disgusting.

A drug that gives potential mothers the ability to endanger their own life in order to destroy the potential of creating life in her own body is completely contradictory to the animal instinct to protect and continue life. To slow down reproduction in any animal species is unnatural. Motherhood and childbirth are essential to survival. The fact this drug is even being considered to be legalised in Australia shows that we are indeed a lost and doomed species.

I'm starting to see why people are convinced that "the end is near." It may or may not come within the decade or century, but if we wake up one morning and wonder why the fertility rate has dropped, why children dishonour and disrespect their parents, and why sexually transmitted disease is so rampant, we'll have no one to blame but ourselves. (Or has that day come already???)

To support RU-486 (or any other abortion for that matter) desecrates parenthood, builds foundations for broken families, justifies the anti-family sentiment that haunts could-have-been mothers and fathers, and disrespects humanity's unmatched ability to create life with a soul.

I wonder about those who argue ruthlessly that RU-486 is justifiable. Truthfully, it might be useful to a teenager with an unwanted pregnancy, a family with too many children, a woman with an abusive partner, a rape victim... the list goes on. Please don't think for a moment that I haven't considered these people - that their situations are any less deserving of the understanding and mercy that we would desire for ourselves if ever we were ever in their place. Because I have thought about these women... Women who should be respected and honored - as all women should be - for the ability... the gift of bearing a child that could be the difference this world could need.

It saddens me that motherhood has been trivialised. It isn't a trivial matter to infertile young women. It isn't trivial to the couple who has prayed for decades for a child to call their own. It won't be a trivial matter to the generations after us who look around at the broken families, the broken relationships and the broken hearts that litter society because we've discarded the respect due to the one thing sacred to all living things - LIFE.

You may think this issue doesn't apply to you.

It does.

What if your mother had taken that drug? You wouldn't be here. How would you react if it was your sister who wanted to take the risk? Not only will she destroy the possiblity of having a neice or nephew that one time, she risks destroying all possibilities of having a child. She risks her own life. What if it was your wife? Your teacher? Your next door neighbour? Would you be so comfortable to stand back if the women you loved most in the world chose to take that risk? How comfortable would you be if it was your turn to start a family and you couldn't?

How will our children's children value the lives of others if their parents can't value the life of the child?

The respect has to start now. The respect has to start here. The respect has to start with you.

It is human instinct - to live.