申論題

VI. 非選擇題 20% (每題 10 分) 1. Summarize the following article into 150-200 words. Abortion is about a child, not a choice By Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie I’m a practicing radiologist, and one of my favorite things to do at work is fetal ultrasound. The miracle of peeking into that intimate space and then looking up to catch the awe in the parents’ faces never makes me weary. But a couple of months ago, I got the call that all physicians would shrink from receiving. A fellow doctor called me, saying bluntly, “You missed something!” Taken aback, I asked him what I had overlooked. The ob-gyn continued, “I delivered a baby girl yesterday with a cleft lip and palate. You did not mention it in your report, and now the parents are extremely upset.” I quickly reviewed the images and explained that the defect was not apparent. I also added hopefully that cleft repairs were easy and that I was sure the parents would soon feel better when they saw the excellent work done by the plastic surgeon. “You don’t understand,” he said. “The parents told me they would have aborted the baby if they had known about this beforehand. Radiologists cannot be too careful when inspecting ultrasound images. So, call your lawyer. I’ve already called mine.” I know many people hearing this story don’t believe this kind of thing could happen, because such defect is not at all uncommon. When people hear the term “prenatal diagnosis,” they imagine a team of doctors standing by the delivery room, waiting to whisk the newborn baby with a heart defect to the operating room. They even imagine a miraculous operation performed on the baby before birth, with the baby tucked safely away inside its mother, to be born perfect later. These things certainly do happen, but they are the exception. The more common outcome is abortion. With deep commitment to human life, I find it very difficult to make such diagnoses, knowing in many cases it is a death sentence. In fetal ultrasound, we look for signs of Down syndrome. When I see any sign of this on an ultrasound, I often weep because I have just seen a little person making the same cute gestures that all the other babies make. However, the parents, during their lowest moments of shock and fear, will be told unemotionally that this problem has a solution, a surgical one, and that they can probably expect another baby soon. They will probably not get a referral to a support group for parents of children with Down syndrome, where they might hear of the special delight these loving people bring to their families. You see, now a child is a “choice.” And when one is choosing something to add value to one’s life, who would choose something that is already broken? Who would choose disability or illness, when one is looking only for giggles and joy? These are the naturally occurring roads that lead to a culture where the conversation I had with the ob-gyn is not only possible but commonplace. Having soundly rejected eugenics as it was notoriously practiced in the twentieth century, we are doing our own soft eugenics before birth, singling out the “damaged” humans. We couch our decisions in gentler terms. We say that some lives are not worth living, especially lives that will be full of pain and suffering. We claim to end those lives out of pure compassion, because in our wisdom, we believe we can judge for another human being exactly the point at which suffering outweighs all the happiness of life. Yet, we forget to ask ourselves why it is acceptable to end the life of an unborn baby with a disability, when no one would be pardoned for ending the life of a 5-year-old who suddenly acquired the same illness. The thinking of a child as a “choice” is terrifying. It causes a culture to treat damaged or vulnerable persons as disposable. That way of thinking will extend its reach to the elderly and the terminally ill. I may get a letter soon, telling me I’ve been named in a lawsuit regarding that baby. If I do, I may have to pay some compensation. It will hurt, of course. But in this case I will consider the money well spent, because our failure to diagnose the defect resulted in the birth of a lovely little girl. One day, her parents will thank God that this minor defect went undetected, and that their angel is safe in their arms. —Adapted from “Abortion Is About a Child, Not a Choice.”