A Moms Love - Your Editorial
Animal Rights & Abortion Dilemmas
by Robert Cohen
"Compassion is the basis of morality."
Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
I have been taken to task of late for supporting
abortion rights. Since Thanksgiving, I've received
dozens of angry letters challenging me to explore
the horror of aborting unborn humans. My first
response was, "Why am I being picked on?" I do not
recall taking such a controversial position. The
angry letters have continued, and they contain ugly
undertones. They include terms such as "liberal Jew"
and "liberal Northeast Democrat." I have been called
a hypocrite, and told that I will soon burn in hell.
I do not know why these letters have started. I wish
that they would stop.
Many animal activists have spent days or months or years
in jail after passionately defending the rights of
defenseless animals who have no voice. Many of those
same liberal individuals misplace their compassion when
it comes to defenseless unborn humans. Is there a
contradiction at work?
I fit the mold of one who would support abortion rights.
I am a liberal New York democratic Jew. Do I pass or fail
your litmus test on this issue? This past month, I've
received over one dozen inquiries from persons assuming
that they know how I stand. Although I've written about
my personal philosophy in the past, I find now an appropriate
time to re-state my abortion philosophy.
Each year, one thousand or more animal rights supporters
gather near Washington, D.C. for their annual convention.
The majority of these activists are women. As a matter of
fact, there would be no animal rights movement without the
gentler sex, who seem to possess a spirituality and wisdom
that their male counterparts lack.
Animal rights activists protest pain to laboratory rats, but
support a woman's right to an abortion. Some demand that meat
eaters acknowledge the horrors of slaughterhouse films, or
vivisection, or bullfighting. Yet, they turn a deaf ear and
firmly shut a blind eye to the conscious being who grows
within the human mother.
Most of these passionate women also support the rights of
women. That's a natural. More than one female author has
paralleled the abuse and struggles of animals to the sexual
politics and multiple indignities suffered by women at the
hands of a male-oriented society.
Is abortion murder? Of course it is. It is more than just
murder. It is death without compassion, for the living
creature, not yet named, possesses pain receptors and is
aware of his or her own suffering.
In defense of their ignorance, some animal rights activists
argue that the fetus feels no pain, much the same way that
animal abusers use the very same argument to defend
vivisection, sport, or the consumption of sentient farm
animals.
As an animal rights activist, I am faced with an enormous
dilemma. Do I call abortion anything else than murder? I
cannot rationalize murder, for that is exactly what it is.
Murder, without regard for the human who will die in great
pain. Abortion is murder.
I cry for the cow and the calf, and the bull in the
bullring, and the dog who is euthanized, and the rat
who is burned in the name of science, and the squirrel
shot by the young boy in the name of sport, and the
coyote who is anally electrocuted so that her fur can
adorn a parka.
Many people do not recognize the unborn child as possessing
the same rights as the rest of us, yet, a study published in
the May, 2003 issue of Psychological Science (2003;14:220-224)
reveals that a fetal infant is able to recognize the voice of
her own mother.
Scientific studies have demonstrated that the growing human
fetus feels pain and learns about the external environment
while within. The fetus recognizes songs and voices. The
brain works, the heart beats, pain receptors feel. How much
compassion do animal rights activists emote for sentient
human infants, not yet born?
Supporting animal research is a transgression of the laws of
nature and an insult to the respect of life. This is why
Animal Rights activists are so right in the things they protest.
Supporting abortion for just one of the 4,700 species of mammals
is a contradiction in terms against all of the good.
There are anti-abortion people who show no compassion to
other living things. They eat animals and wear furs and
hunt and support animal research. There are also pro-abortion
people who are vegans and protest animal research and animal
abuse of any sort.
One must be true to a universal truth. Abuse of any living
creature is a crime against what I could call Universal
Wisdom. One cannot act passionately against one form of
abuse while supporting another and defend that action by
rationalizing with an excuse of personal convenience.
Robert Cohen is author of Milk A - Z and
editor of the website Not Milk
http://www.notmilk.com
BIOGRAPHY FOR ROBERT COHEN
Robert Cohen, who holds a degree in psychoneuroendocrinology, performed
research in the 1970s on the hormonal effects on the brain and behavior.
Twenty-five years later, this father of three became concerned about the
most controversial drug approval in FDA history, the genetically engineered
hormone that is now in our milk supply. Along the way, Mr. Cohen discovered
that milk is implicated in causing breast cancer, osteoporosis, heart
disease, and chronic childhood illnesses. Mr. Cohen's skills as a
researcher, and his passion for the safety of his family, led to his
single-minded pursuit to expose the truth about milk. Based on his
exhaustive and comprehensive research over the past seven years, Mr. Cohen
predicted the Mad Cow Disease outbreak. His dogged determination has set
the American dairy industry on its ear.
To insure that all citizens of the world learn the truth, Mr. Cohen founded
and is executive director of America's Dairy Education Board, a group of
nationally prominent doctors dedicated to dispelling the myth that milk is
nature's perfect food. To underscore the depth of his commitment, Mr. Cohen
undertook a 205-day fast (the last 30 days of which were water only) to
protest the use of Monsanto's genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.
Mr. Cohen is the author of two critically acclaimed books on milk and the
dairy industry-MILK-The Deadly Poison and Milk A-Z. He has lectured all
over the US, Canada, and Europe. He has appeared on thousands of radio and
television programs, including ABC Nightly News and Hard Copy.
Robert Cohen is also the inventor of the SoyToy. Over a year in design,
the SoyToy makes 2 quarts of fresh, healthy soymilk at home in under 30
minutes for as little as 4 cents per quart.
Mr. Cohen has spoken at numerous SDA churches throughout the country. He
is the author of two new books about Ellen G. White - God's Nutritionist and
the soon-to-be published Food for Thought.
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