Being Pro-Life

 

‘Does life begin at conception or birth? Neither - it begins when the children leave home!’ It’s good to hopefully get a laugh out of a serious matter that frequently sets Christians at loggerheads with their contemporaries. Thanks to medical science and Ultrasound technology everyone is able to see what only God saw before, life in the womb, and that knowledge can be problematic. So many blessings have come to pregnant women from ultrasound scans and yet the information provided has led some parents into agonising decision making. Where handicap is evident, should the pregnancy proceed? Being Pro-Life in a narrow definition is associated with accepting any unborn child as God’s gift of a new life rejecting abortion. The label ‘Pro-Choice’ affirms a mother’s right over her body including her right to destroy any foetus she is bearing if she judges their life prospects as weak or the birth as being against her own interests. Already the word ‘life’ is being used in two senses, one’s existence and one’s vitality. Being Pro-Life might be seen as about affirming the right to exist as well as the option to exist well or ‘get a life’.

Mike and Sue were faced with a grievous decision after a scan showed their unborn child might be handicapped. They asked my advice and I encouraged them to accept what was in Sue as a precious gift from God who would give them help to continue as the good parents they already were. They agonised over the pregnancy, Sue especially, and decided for a termination. This involved Sue treating what was in her as an unwelcome growth for the short period before the abortion. Mike found this really difficult and their differences here contributed eventually to the failure of their marriage. I tell this story with names changed because I shared this couple’s agony, besides being privileged at their request to clarify Christian teaching. I was upset about the decision but bent over backwards to be supportive to the family and still keep them all with the deceased child in my prayers. The experience made me more sympathetic to women faced with unwanted pregnancies or the prospect of caring for a disabled child. Through ultrasound scans we gain information no past generation had which on occasion places parents on the horns of a grievous dilemma in which, like many choices in life, either outcome is unsatisfactory or tragic.

Being Pro Life captures the sense of that scripture and an advocacy for life wherever it is in jeopardy: in the womb, afflicted by poverty or vulnerable through old age. If life is God’s gift its deliberate destruction is wrong in many situations even if that destruction is judged a ‘lesser evil’ as, classically, in warfare. The defence of life in the womb links to honouring what is seen as created in God’s image, a human being with potential and not just a potential human being. There is deep irony though in how Christian involvement in politics sometimes majors on challenging abortion whilst shirking back from the need to address the poverty and social ills which impact the quality of life for many and contribute to forcing women to consider that option. Being Pro-Life in Christianity is inseparable from its Founder’s stated aspiration: ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly’ (John 10:10)

At the other end of Pro-Life advocacy is the countering of legislation allowing euthanasia which gives people the right to medical assistance in ending their lives when they see fit. In this countering Christians are in alliance with other groups and individuals who fear such legislation makes the elderly vulnerable to unscrupulous relatives and agencies. In 2018 French Roman Catholic Bishops issued a declaration tellingly named, ‘End of Life: Yes to the Urgency of Fraternity’, in response to calls to allow euthanasia. The statement laments the scarcity of palliative care in France but argued that euthanasia was no answer. Trust between doctors and patients would be undermined. ‘Killing, even under the guise of compassion, can in no case be a cure’. People asking to die need supportive care ‘attentive accompaniment, not a premature abandonment to the silence of death… It is a true fraternity that is urgently needed - it is the vital link of our society,’ they said. Where people feel loved or ‘in fraternity’ they can come to value themselves all the more, agreeing with those who demonstrate to them how much they are loved. Love is the ultimate Pro Life movement and assuager of pain but there is not enough love around.

I recall visiting Peter in our local Hospice over the last year of his life and being impressed by his humour and joy in facing death. Before he died he made a recording for Premier Christian Radio series which included these words: ‘I’m Peter Nicholson and I’m nearly 70. I‘m in a Hospice and I have kidney failure but I’m not upset about it because I don’t feel alone. Right from an early age I learned about Jesus and God and I was told then, and its remarkable how this has been with me all my life, that if I’m ever lonely or upset or in difficulties God said talk to him and in fact I did just that. I know I’m in a situation where I’m getting close to the end of my life and he’s with me again and I feel relaxed and happy, and especially happy in the good company of friends who are extremely supportive and bring me joy. It seems funny to say you feel joyful when you’re close to death but I do feel very joyful and almost excited at what I might be in for’. Peter’s testimony of how practical love in family, friendship and the Church makes life convivial even in a Hospice anticipates a quality of joyous living beyond this world. [Picture from St Peter & St James Hospice, Chailey, Sussex website.