Saturday, January 23, 2010

On the lung cancer debate, drowning and the real issues.

This will be a short rant in the form of an analogy.

Lung cancer kills a lot of people annually. Life is sacred and if lung cancer is killing people, then we should ban lung cancer entirely. Problem solved.

Except that people start smoking, and then years go by and all of a sudden, they find themselves in a situation that they sort of knew was among the risks of smoking, and yet, their need for a cigarette for whatever reason outweighed that risk at the time, or rather, each time they lit up.

But if we ban lung cancer and remove all treatments, where will these people go? What will they do? Will they have to get black market drugs and treatments? Will they have to see fraudulent "doctors" in back alleys?

Banning lung cancer doesn't get rid of lung cancer. It just takes away any safety surrounding it.

If you want to prevent lung cancer to the utmost of your ability, you have to go back to when this person was a child and teach them and love them and teach them to love their body also. You have to teach them what they are worth. You have to show them with all your being that that is true. You have to guide them and be involved. You have to love them unconditionally such that if they do dip their toes into troublesome things, they'll come to you anyway. You have to teach them that even if they make mistakes, if they take responsibility and work hard to right things, there is always a possibility of forgiveness and healing.

On the other hand, if you close all the doors of communication, show no support nor love to this person and they wind up in trouble, don't go after the one person who is trying to keep them safe. It may not seem that way, but if a person gets themselves into enough trouble to feel cornered, trapped and past the point of no return, then yes, the person carrying the horrible drugs that are the only possible remedy for the situation (in this case, lung cancer) becomes the only person who is trying to keep them safe.

What I'm trying to say is if a person feels so vulnerable and exposed as a result of your lack of guidance, love and support and feels there is no way out but through means you deem to be horrible, well, it's too late for your opinion to matter.

Or to put it an entirely different way, if somebody is already drowning, they don't want you to teach them how to swim. They just want you to pull them out. Banning lifeguards won't stop people from drowning.

Banning abortions doesn't stop women from the desperation that got them into that waiting room to begin with.

If you do it right, if you handle the issue right from beginning to end, whether abortion is legal or not shouldn't even matter.

Just sayin'.

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