May's Perfumes that Flood the Air

"You can't say to the spring: 'Come now and last as long as possible.' You can only say: 'Come and bless me with your hope, and stay as long as you can.'"

Words lost on the wind. But I needed to hear them, and he needed to say them. I fell asleep, although I don't know when. I dreamed, not of a situation or of a person, but of a perfume that flooded the air.

~Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

Aren't these words delicious? Love 'em (I do). Just finished the novel by the way and it is quite good -one of those self-discovery, spiritual journey type of stories... easy to read, but also quite profound and revealing. Also there's lots of sex so prepare yourself accordingly if you decide to read it (I mean, it's the spiritual adventure of a prostitute after all). Anyway, I read it this week almost only during my commute between school and home -what a wonderful discovery to be able to escape into a different kind of personal growth and pleasure whilst using one's time so efficiently! Usually reading in moving things gives me headaches and nausea, but not this one. I'm part way through Ayn Rand's Fountainhead though and I probably ought not to take that one up in the BMW (Bus, Metro, Walk). Just like I can't really study my Med World material there neither.

Last week's long weekend in Niagara was really perfect. We did all the touristy things -Maid of the Mist, right beneath the Falls, ate at the revolving restaurant (with a spectacular view and pretty good food), watched the IMAX film about the crazy daredevils who curled up in barrels which were then sealed, pumped up with oxygen and then thrown into the Niagara River to go tumbling down to near-death with the millions-of-bathtubs-full-at-any-given-moment of waterfall. And then pretty little Niagara-on-the-Lake all a-blossom, lush green parks, quaint little shops, vast vineyards (with Icewine that was really something else, I must confess -the Vidal, and the Riesling, especially, although the Cab Franc was not too bad... don't worry, on the official tasting, they probably only serve you half a champagne-flute total ;), and of course, an enchantingly entertaining couple of hours at the Theatre to experience some of this world famous Shaw Festival (it was a play called 'Brief Encounters' from Noel Coward's collection of 10 one-act plays called Tonight at 8:30).

Here's the thing about long weekends though: the following so-called 'short week' always feels long! How is this possible? I don't know really, but somehow the gods seem to like 'making it up' to us. It was hectic, but good. Immunology has been interesting,

Trekking out to St. Mary's Hospital was also interesting (my new Small Group this semester is terrific though! hey, i served my time with the rude crew if you recall ;),

Osler Society stuff -interesting too: Wednesday, we hosted a lecture in the Osler Library on "Art, Anatomy and the Representation of Knowledge", including a viewing of original 16th-19th century manuscripts; Thursday, we hosted a Philosopher's Cafe moderated by the famous conservative McGill Law Professor and bioethicist Margaret Somerville on "Crisis of conscience: should health-care professionals park their values at the door?". The latter became a heated debate on abortion and euthanasia for the first part before being steered back towards the larger concept of freedom of conscience. Parties on both sides get quite emotional about these things. Which is fine, who doesn't (they're called 'hot issues' for a reason), but it is a useful exercise to try to keep that emotional aspect under control so that open, healthy discussion can yield fruit, especially if you really want to discover why you believe what you believe, and even more reasons why you will continue to believe what you believe -no one's asking you to renounce your values... well, that's a lie.

It's a lie because Pro-Life people are in fact asking Pro-Choice people to renounce their values. Now. I am Pro-Choice. But I can recognize that the argument, "I believe what I believe, you believe what you believe, let's not impose our values on each other" is intrinsically a Pro-Choice stance. If Pro-Lifers truly believe that abortion is murder, then what I believe and what you believe is besides the point, right, because they're talking murder. Even if you disagree with that position (and I absolutely DO disagree!), you have to admit that it makes no sense for them to accept the Pro-Choice position.

Now a while back, I was asked by some friends when I considered 'life' to begin, and why I'm Pro-Choice (and essentially, how on Earth do you live with yourself, you crazy, heartless psycho). I would like to start by saying this: I consider myself Pro-Choice-on-a-spectrum, which means that there are surely certain rare kinds of situations in which I think most Pro-Choice doctors feel less comfortable performing abortions. And most of the time, we should ask the deeper question of why it is that these particular cases (later in gestation, the rare woman who presents her situation flippantly) get to this point, and what we might do to address these deeper problems (also, just because someone may appear to act 'flippantly' doesn't mean that they don't realize the seriousness of the decision they are making, and are in fact using 'flippancy' merely as a mask for much more complex, deeper concerns, which I do not feel is my place to judge). But I remain Pro-Choice even then because I do believe the woman's life comes first, especially because she is a part of society, and society as a whole suffers when she suffers, and loses an important participant when she loses her ability to function optimally and live within it.

Firstly, I am not God to know or decide when life begins and frankly, neither are you. But before 22 weeks of pregnancy, it is riskier (in terms of life and death here, let me be extremely clear) for a pregnant woman to continue being pregnant than to abort, so I think she is perfectly within her rights to do so, especially in this case. The question of the viability of the fetus later on is often a hot button, yeah. Personally, I have no qualms about the issue at all prior to viability (so while I cannot decide when life begins, I do not think it has begun prior to the fetus being truly viable). Once it is viable though, I think that if a woman is forced to go through with an unwanted pregnancy (whether the reason for that is rape by a stranger, rape by her husband, being forbidden to use birth control for socio-cultural and religious reasons, and a variety of other reasons), the trauma of that pregnancy and subsequent birth is a threat to her mental and physical health (including compromised immunity associated with that kind of trauma paired with the physiological and psychological stress of a pregnancy), and a threat to health is a threat to life -her life, the pregnant woman's life. And so even though, most doctors probably don't feel fabulous about aborting a fetus at 30 weeks, compassion for this particular kind of distress and health and life risks for the pregnant woman is about deciding whether the means justify the ends. The fact that rape has been deemed an act of genocide shows to what extent a traumatic, unwanted pregnancy is a form of extermination of the woman's right to self-determination, within the context of a larger society in which they function, and a society that benefits from their optimal ability to function (so don't give me that 'abortion is selfish' argument).

Finally, yes, we can all recognize that it is problematic when a few women use abortion as a form of birth control -but there are deeper problems at the heart of this, including education, access to birth control, understanding various traditional, cultural practices, amongst other concerns (please listen to Barack Obama's response when asked about abortion -he expresses a similar point quite eloquently). Doctors do not blindly perform abortions -they do in fact talk to their patients about all their options, investigate the reasons the patient thinks they want an abortion, etc...

And remember. If someone wants an abortion, they're going to have one, regardless of whether the doctor provides the service. People used to drink all kinds of toxic substances to induce miscarriage, hangers and various other barbaric tools were used resulting in the death of both the mother and the fetus, and pregnant women have also been known to commit suicide because of an unwanted pregnancy. There are dangerous practical implications to trying to impose one's values (especially in law -and Somerville by the way, opposes making abortion illegal within the law even though she is Pro-Life) through law. Anyway, see the Morgentaler case for beautifully articulated arguments (this is the Canadian edition of Roe v. Wade).

There are my thoughts. You don't have to agree with them. We can agree to disagree. But like I said before, for Pro-Lifers that's just not possible. I know. I know why. I do get where you're coming from. On this particular topic, I am okay with having a different view from yours and I'm okay with the fact that you're not going to be okay with my different view. Esoterically. Legally, I'd raise hell to uphold my values in practice.