To the editor:
Ethics professors teach a thought experiment known as the trolley problem. Imagine a trolley headed toward a track-switch where you're standing. Past the switch there's a northern and a southern track. You notice somebody's been tied to the north track, but the switch is directing the streetcar to the south track. Then you see four people tied to the south track. If you do nothing to avert the trolley, four people will die through your inaction; but if you toggle, you're deciding that one person must die to save four.
This is what's known as an ethical dilemma.
Anti-abortion advocates like to pretend there's no ethical dilemma involved in the question of abortion. For them, it's cut and dried; Abortion takes a life. There's no upside. This kind of thinking, however, is myopic and lazy.
There are actually a number of factors involved which make the decision to abort less simplistic.
First, there's the question of whether or not the fetus is actually a person yet. For many, the question of personhood begins with the electrical impulses that they call "heart activity" or a "heartbeat," but the idea that these weak involuntary pulses are synonymous with "heartbeat" is more emotional than scientific. The same can be said for early neural activity.
Another factor; the question of body autonomy. A woman is not a machine. You certainly have no right to compel her into gestational servitude. However, there's an argument to be made that forcing a woman to carry a pregnancy against her will, regardless of her role in initiating the condition, is equivalent to seeing her as nothing more than a walking incubator. It's even more a gray issue when we factor in concerns such as rape and incest.
It's also argued that anti-abortion policy ignores dilemmas related to health care. Often, abortions are performed when a medical crisis puts the life of the mother at risk, such as ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy or lethal fetal anomalies such as esophageal atresia, anencephaly, hydranencephaly and others which render a fetus non-viable. These conditions are generally undetectable until the second or even third trimester. For many, if the baby can't survive birth, or if birth would kill the mother, the question of whether abortion is murder becomes somewhat less absolute.
There are also tertiary concerns such as childcare, the adoption crisis, over-population, income disparity, even global warming. For some, these issues aren't in play. For others, they're the primary driver in their reproductive decisions. Nobody's opinion is absolutely correct or categorically wrong. Why should the opinion of the pro-birther prevail, when the other person is (in his or her mind) thinking pro-life?
Bottom line -- life is a series of "trolley problems." Hopefully you're never faced with one "irl." But if we don't pass the reproductive bill of rights for Ohioans in November, Republican extremists in the Statehouse are going to make the decision for you, and then the sanctimony trolley will crush your rights in favor of the vocal minority they represent.
J. David Core
Toronto