Ethics is the moral compass that governs the behavior of an individual or a group of individuals. In a newspaper article written on The Telegraph, UK on Friday 19 June 2015, a review is carried out on an article arguing that killing a newborn baby with undesirable effects is the same as abortion. It further goes on to argue that newborn babies are not people and that they do not yet have a right to life. The article, under review is titled “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” and was written by two of Prof Savulescu’s former associates, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva. This raises serious ethical questions about the right of life and human rights abuse of the highest kind, with the ‘experts’ calling the babies ‘potential babies’ rather than real babies. On the subject of human rights, they argue that the newborn baby is like a fetus, lacking the tenets that guarantee the right to life that a human being possesses. They also have the horrific assumption that the right of life should be guaranteed to a person that can guarantee their own existence; which by many ways is a sick assumption (Stephen, 2015).
In bubble, her boyfriend accuses Rose of stealing money. Her innocence cannot be proven just yet, but it raises an ethical issue about morals. In the article, the author talks about taking like away from the babies because they do not have the right of life just yet. Well, this relates to the situation above in bubble in that the doctors are proposing stealing the babies from their mothers and euthanizing them. Talk of the right to ownership also crops up here since the moment the babies are born, they have the right to life; the right to own their existence, however helpless they may seem.
The police find Rose in her house. She is dead from strangulation. Her baby is crying alone in the house. Martha is later seen pawning jewelry, which she allegedly got from the victim. She is apprehended and taken in for questioning. She is also seen visiting a beauty parlor. Evidently, she killed Rose out of sheer greed and lust for more. In the article, parents who bear children with disabilities are being wrongly advised to go against ethics and kill children with disabilities once they are born. This can be interpreted as a move wrought with sheer greed, lust, and selfishness for parents and doctors to act God and end the life of a human being. To make matters worse, there is technology of pre natal testing that enables parents and doctors to see any defects in the baby before it is born. Just like Rose in bubble, the baby has nerves and can perceive pain in the same way a human can. Killing a baby would be a heinous crime in many ways.
The paper talks about witch ethics, where the public seem to identify the witch and burn her, in relation to the article written by Giublini and Minerva. They suggest that the two should be given a platform to air their views. What they are forgetting is that they are undermining ethics of human life. Just like in Bubble, any person who actualizes these ideas should be dealt with harshly and treated as an example. Ethics in medicine and ethics that apply to human life go hand in hand because they affect our way of life directly. We should always try to guard the sanctity of life.
Reference
Stephen, A. (2015). Killing babies no different from abortion, experts say. Retrieved June 21, 2015, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9113394/Killing-babies-no-different-from-abortion-experts-say.html
