This is not a pleasant column. I’m going to talk about something truly upsetting, and I doubt I’ll come to a satisfactory solution to what I believe is a great disgrace in our culture.
I’m not a lawyer, a doctor or a distinguished professor of ethics. But any guy with reasonable intelligence and the gumption to read a couple books can come up with a demanding question.
My question: “How do we define murder — specifically of a baby?”
One good place to look for the answer is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Here is some of what it has to say:
“Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the Fifth Commandment: ‘Do not slay the innocent and the righteous.’ The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: It obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere” (No. 2261).
“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life” (No. 2270).
That seems pretty clear. And the reaction of authorities to a situation that occurred recently in Chicago would seem to be in line with the prohibition on killing the innocent. As reported in the Feb. 22 Chicago Tribune: “An Edgewater woman was charged with murder after she induced labor, wrapped her newborn daughter in a robe, placed her in a plastic bag, then left her in a closet to die.”
May God have mercy on the baby and the mother. I don’t know why the mother did this horrible act, but I must assume it was out of desperation, fear, anger — some terrible cocktail of emotions that I can only try to imagine. And on top of this sadness, we have the inexplicable strangeness of the criminal law.
You see, an autopsy on the baby showed that it was breathing after birth. Therefore, despite the mother’s obvious attempt at self-serve abortion, to eliminate the baby she had to stop it from breathing after it was born. If the baby had not been breathing upon birth, the law would say this was either a miscarriage or a successful abortion. Thus, it would not have been murder in the eyes of the law.
Perhaps even stranger, past cases suggest that if she had killed the baby while its umbilical was still attached she would not have been charged with a criminal act because baby and mother were still attached. I suppose this is the same legal rationale that allows partial-birth abortion.
If the mother had gone to an abortion business and the folks there induced a miscarriage, the woman would not face any charges. This being Illinois, if the aborted baby had been breathing and appeared “viable,” the clinic would have an obligation to provide care for it. But at the risk of being cynical, I expect that in such a situation a way is found by the abortion clinic to make sure the baby isn’t viable.
Here in Illinois, we had a case in which a pregnant woman was assaulted, resulting in the death of her unborn baby. The assailant was charged with murder — of the unborn baby. If the assault occurred while the woman was on the way to get an abortion, would there still be a charge of murder? If an unborn baby is considered a person who can be murdered, why is an unborn baby who is aborted not a person?
As I said at the outset, I have the question but not the answer. But if I take the Catechism as my law, killing a person before or after birth certainly ought to be murder. And I fear our society is going to pay a high price for not accepting this simple truth.
Revelation 6:10: “And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’”
Jim Fair writes from Chicago.
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The reality is that this woman committed murder, abortionists commit murder and so do the mothers of aborted babies. We don’t want to say that the mothers are murderers but it has to be so since a preborn baby is a person with the right to life, then anyone involved in killing that life is guilty of murder. The same would be true for a child after the birth, anyone involved in killing that child would be guilty of murder.
The only question I have is what do we do with the mothers who abort their babies? Yes, they deserve compassion, forgiveness and redemption (assuming they are sorry) but anything else? If this woman in Chicago goes to jail should mothers of aborted babies go to jail? No one wants to say it but if it is murder to abort a child, shouldn’t there be a punishment in the criminal justice system? If not, why not?
I am not interested in being called names for trying to get at the truth so if you can’t stick to the question, please keep your comments to yourself.
I have read many stories about women killing their babies that have just been delivered. Why is this happening? I think it is because our society has allowed killing babies in the womb for 37 years, and really, what is the difference? In the womb, moments out of the womb? We are a culture used to killing (murdering) innocent babies. We are in a very sad state in the USA. We have slid down the proverbial slippery slope. And because we are on the slope, where do we draw the line on murdering innocent babies? It has become very difficult. But God is good, and there are several states that have worked very hard to pass laws that have greatly reduced the number of abortions in their state. And I think that our Church must start speaking out against the horrible massacre of the unborn. Our priests need to stop being afraid to speak the truth. We have to educate people on the truth. Life begins at conception, that is when the sex is determined for that child. All the DNA is in place for that individual unique human being at the moment of conception. Science is clear on this. We have to care for those women and men that are suffering because of abortion. We need to pray, pray, pray for God’s mercy on all of us, but especially for the conversion of the doctors and nurses that perform abortions. Much work is needed, especially today with a pro-abortion president in office. We are the Church militant and we have to fight the good fight. Put on the armor of God and defend His teachings!
I’ve had the exact same argument. Our judicial system seems to be more ready to defend the semantics of our constitution rather than the lives of the people it was intended for.
You know people cry out that the women who get abortions would be considered murderers if abortion was made illegal. I say make it illegal and punish the people that provide the abortion and not the women. The woman that receives an abortion wether legally or illegally is harmed enough. The greater sin is on those that enable her to have her child mudered. Murder is murder plain and simple. A life is lost and in abortion two lives are usually destroyed, the child and the Mother. Your article just points out the moral confusion that has gained momentum since the early 1960’s when prayer was removed from public life. They incorrectly said that seperation of church and state was part of our constitution. The founding fathers clearly stated that this is a Christian nation but no one sect of Christianity was to be the absolute religion. Our schools were to be based on the bible and christian principles so that we could have a moral society and raise Christian people to lead this nation. Since the minority took control in the early 1960’s black is white, up is down, and right is wrong. No wonder the children to not mature into adulthood but stay in eternal peter pan state. True freedom is taking resposibilty for one’s self and actions and this is encouraged by the commandments and christian teaching. Sorry for the length but I needed to vent some.
I live in a country where our most basic and first divine RIGHT has been taken away. LIFE
For 30 years, our Declaration of Independence has been mocked and ignored.
LIFE is no longer a Right in these United States, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness are going too.
Not only is abortion common and easy, but the stigma is gone from the Public Square, and the Church Pews. Right now various States are advocating Euthanasia on demand. The slope in some European countries is already slick from the blood of those murdered because they were a “burden” or “too sick and feeble.”
Nothing will happen to this woman who can so easily murder her own child. Not in this life. But how so we answer for ourselves by allowing these things to happen?
Why do we deny our Lord?
We are on the road to Nothingness (sartre)...This is a great article…. very well stated..! Thank you for stating the truth..!
The information in this newspaper to support life is very helpful. Thanks for the article Jim. Where we are (LA) our challenges are many. Our group is looking to harness all the various options and resources so a woman can make a positive decision or optionsunited.com. We need to ensure all options are present to help a woman at the point of crisis.
I have to disagree somewhat with Margie as to the greater sin falling on the doctors performing abortions. To do this is to say that a murderer is more guilty than the person who hired them to kill in the first place. Under the law it all falls under the category of conspiracy to commit murder. The punishment should be the same for all parties involved. To go one step further I would point out that as a society we empower our leaders to make decisions about the legality of abortion (murder). We give people power through the voting process to decide whether or not doctors and mothers have the right to commit murder. This debate is so important because a society that sanctions murder through abortion is no better than those civilizations God destroyed for acts such as child sacrifice. I’m sure in those cultures there were also a few who did not agree with such practices, but regardless the guilt was shared by all. I fear for our civilization.
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