I The Players (continued) Media Talking the abortion language
Attitudes about abortion have certainly changed in the last twenty years. It has become a part of the fabric of society and often goes unchallenged. Once something has been made legal people in Britain assume that this makes it right. Our opponents seemed at their most angry when complaining that we had reopened this debate. What they have only just come to realise is that an issue which is literally life and death for some has become, for others, a blasĂŠ, everyday experience of life. It is important that future generations have the benefit of knowing what was said on both sides of the debate - something to which they can point when they try to understand this generation's attitudes towards life and death and towards each other as human beings. Our society has become very high tech in the last few years. While this trend, in most cases, is for the benefit of us all, it has tended to distance us from the realities of life. We can insulate ourselves from the pain and suffering that our world neighbours, indeed our literal neighbours, suffer. The medical world is on the frontiers of this high tech world. We have come to expect more and more for less and less from our doctors and medical professionals. Medical miracles have become so common that when they are not possible we feel hard done by. Childbirth is an area that has benefited greatly from the recent medical advances. Now children that once would never have survived live long and healthy lives. Babies born earlier and earlier are now living. Children with more and more severe diseases or disabilities are able to recover and are able to take a more active part in the world around them. The recent case of the Birmingham baby - whose brain tissue was transplanted to save the life of a man with Parkinson's disease - speaks volumes about the humanity of the child. You and I may both carry donor cards. That really is our choice. But what choice did the child have? Would we expect someone to give up an organ they still needed?