i am a law student doing my postgraduation in Bangalore. during the past few days, i happened to receive mails from other friends in jy and also saw in the joynet the news on the endeavour to scrap the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act in kerala.
please keep in mind that even though i am not a Catholic(i'm Orthodox), i have full respect towards the Catholic Church as it stands today and my statements are not made with a view to disparage any organisation , institiution or movement and should not be tried to be read between the lines. this is just an opinion from the legal perspective, as a student of human rights in the present epoch of time. it is my view that the point is that the presence of such an Act gives the freedom to choose to individual, which is a symbol of a non-restrictive society where the freedom of choice can be freely excercised. i doubt whether the Act will be scrapped as such, as the scrapping of such an Act would symbolise going back to the Dark Ages where the Catholic Church imposed restrictions in all walks of personal and spititual life .....even in muslim countries in the present day one can find legal systems which mix religion and morals with law. .however, law is different from beliefs. law has to take into account a variety of beliefs prevalent in society and attempt to strike a just balance between the conflicting interests, be it the ideas of various religious groups or atheist groups, or the human rights of the fetus or the mother ..... of course, this does not mean that i, personally, as a Christian believer, consent to abortion as a matter of principle .but , as a lawyer, i do not think that law should force people to do something which is up to their personal freedom to decide. Even God has that attitude when He says somewhere in the Bible,"i have put before you two ways, blessing(good) and curse(evil), life and death. choose blessing and life, if you will" or words to that effect......in essence, He says that He is not restricting your freedom to choose evil, though He would definitely prefer you to choose good. the question naturally arises as to why God has done like this...IF He is God, then why not make people choose good alone?....the answer lies in that it's because He is a just God and He has created man in His likeness and image which includes the capicity of full exercise of all rights, which includes the right to freedom of choice..! ... that is why He has made such a categorical statement as above. the remedy lies with us Christians...are we prepared to take the commitment of on a personal not committing abortion or practicing abortive or anti-fetal activities that snuff out life, and on a community level of promoting respect towards the right to life of the unborn through outreacha nd educative practises, and also on the spiritual realm of waging war on these elements through fasting and prayer on an individual or corporate basis.......herein lies the challenge---to will to choose blessing, rather than snuffing out the right to choose curse. this is my humble personal opinion on this issue....i'm sure to hear a lot of dissent from the religious community with regard to this position...whether abortion is tantamount to murder is also a disputed issue in law as there are disputing views of various pressure groups as to the existence of life as a human being in an embryo and when exactly does life as a human being start in a fetus so as to grant it human rights...science has not given any concrete view so far as to when life as a human being starts---there are again conflicting views on this , according to each pressure group.it is the responsibility of the lawmaker to glean an impartial and truthful opinion as to these issues,which is a very difficult and contoversial issue again.....so, a compromise has to be struck somewhere. as law -makers, it is unfair to favour the views of only a particular pressure group or group of individuals. as Christians, we cannot impose our views on others just because we know that we are right and they are wrong. let's not use the ostrich -which -buries -it's -head -in -the -sand approach----much hue and cry will ensue as certain sections of society will say that it is better to have legal abortion and save the health of the mother than have illegal abortion and let both woman and fetus die--these are arguments that have been well thrashed out over the years and there is no need for me repeating them.all that i can say is that law cannot and should not restrict the individual freedom of a human being to choose evil ... our God is a God of justice , 'who gives rain to the just and the unjust', and God has given man, (who is created in His image and likeness and endowed with all rights) every right to enjoy total freedom --freedom to follow the devil or Him . that is why He did not prevent the devil from rebelling, nor does He prevent the devil from trying to deceive us....as human beings, we have every right to choose.... please choose life and blessing , if you will, as I wish this for you...that is all our dear Abba says, nothing more, nothing less ,as He is Ultimate Truth and Ultimate Justice. ...(this is based on the theological theory on the jurisprudence of human rights which one of my classmates has evolved ....) so it is up to the moral elements in society to guide the people to exercise their freedom of choice in the best possible manner so as to bring about individual and social edification... so the whole responsibility lies on us-those chosen people of God to spread His plea to choose good and not evil--and on us alone....imagine the tremendous responsibility and the personal accountability of each one of us 'renewed' and 'believers' have towards Him ,which cannot be waived by any law... lina ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com **************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. 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