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‘Right to life’ philosophy
Chocolate syndrome
more good, than bad marked with selfishness
By Steve Lundgren
Rhapsody Editor
my mouth. Just one quick
Chunky for the road.
An infant was found
Even my loved one recently in a trash bin at a
Photo Editor
becomes leery when she kisses university, barely alive. Ap­
Having to admit to one’s me. She knows something’s parently the product of an
self that you are a chocoholic wrong, as she notices brown unwanted pregnancy, the child
is a step in the wrong direc­ smudges on my shirt collar.
had probably been disposed of
tion. The subtleties of trying
Sleep is no escape from by its mother with the hopes
to conceal the fact are more the affliction either. After a that some Samaritan would
numerous than the number of hard day’s work of chocolate find it and take it in. But
chocolate chips in a bag of mousses or cheesecake. I go to possibly, the child had been
Hershey’s Mini Morsels. Such sleep only to wake up in a cold left to die.
as frantically searching for the sweat dreaming of a triple
She was alive. That is to
last double fudge brownie layer chocolate ice cream cake.
say, her heart beat faintly and
hiding in the back of the bot­
Yes, I know when I have a she breathed, but she appeared
tom right hand drawer of my monkey on my back. It’s when to be comatose. And despite
desk and scouring through all I mix a hair of the dog of much medical attention at a
the empty Snickers and Milky malted chocolate milk in the nearby hospital, her condition
Way wrappers to find my last morning. Fortunately for me, worsened until she needed life­
fix of the day. Or so I think. there’s no cure. Only a dark support systems.
On the drive home I slam side of my Dr. Jeckle/Mr.
An examination there
on the brakes at every other Hyde personality. Speaking of revealed two things: she was
7-11 as I dive into the store dark, I think I have a about a week old, and she had
putting the clerk into shock at Hershey’s Special Dark stash­ been born missing 80 percent
the sight of foam frothing from ed in my bag.
of her brain. But her heart
\_____________ ___________ _____________ / continues to beat. Should it
continue to do so with the life­
support systems, a feat on
which attending doctors plac­
THE PRINT, a member of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers
ed fifty-fifty odds, she will be
Association, aims to be a fair and impartial journalistic
a complete vegetable, unable
medium covering the campus community as thoroughly as
to respond to all but the most
possible. Opinions expressed in THE PRINT do not
basic stimuli.
necessarily reflect those of the College administration, facul­
At this writing she is still
ty, Associated Student Government or other members of
“alive.” Her case is an un­
THE PRINT. Clackamas Community College, 19600 S.
common one but definitely not
Molalla Avenue, Oregon City, Oregon 97045.
unheard of. However, it has
lent ammunition to both fac­
tions in a current minor war­
Office: Trailer B; telephone: 657-8400, ext. 309, 310
Editor In Chief: Doug Vaughan
fare. One faction claims the
News Editor: Shelley Ball
right for all humans to live at
Arts Editor: J. Dana Haynes
any cost. The other advocates
Sports Editor: Rob Conner
the right to “death with digni­
Photo Editor: Joel Miller
Copy Editor: Marco Procaccini
ty.”
Cartoonists: Ward Moore, Chris Parrish
The essence of this strug-,
Staff Writers: DeAnn Dietrich, Charlene Jensen, Kathy Johnson, Renee
gle lies in the definition of life;
Rickard, Kristen Tonole, Heather Wright
where it begins and where it
Staff Photographers: Kim McAbee, Steve Beals, Russ McMillen,
ends. Although each side
Jason Webb, Dan Youngquist
Business Manager: Shelley Stone
believes its point of view to be
Typesetter: Teresa A. Hannaford
right and moral, I think this
Advisor: Sara Wichman
struggle is not one of morals.
Rather is it one of misguided
Pagel
By Joel Miller
or even false altruism versus a
natural truth, that is, natural
selection. It also includes a
question of social responsibili­
ty to the living dead, those
tragic souls whose privilege to
think, to act, to exist as a
human should, has been
denied by accident or folly of
nature.
Should a body incapable
of functioning on its own be
kept “alive” electronically? Is
a pulse so sacred that it should
be artificially maintained
through a crisis that by nature
would stop it, only to preserve
a warm body and nothing
more? I think not. A life sus­
tained mechanically or a body
confined indefinitely to a bed
and dining through a tube is
not life at all.
In a number of cases with
brain-dead adult patients deci­
sions have been reached. The
plug was pulled on Karen Ann
Quinlan after many long and
emotional debates, but by no
means did that set a
precedence. The controversy
becomes even hotter when an
infant is involved.
At this point, I believe it is
appropriate to broaden my
discussion to include those
children born so disfigured
that without immediate and
major surgery they would die
soon after birth. Every year
many babies are born thus and
many are patched together
with little consideration for
the possible meaning of their
deformities. The proponants
of this may argue that such
children should be given every
chance to mature and live
“fulfilled” lives. Idealistically
they are right, and those
children that are saved often
do lead lead full lives. But by
design of nature there is bound
to be a number of offspring
not suited at birth for survival,
either by way of genetic flaw
or induced deformities. To
fight this law after a child is
born cannot be beneficial
overall to society or our
species. The battle should be
fought prior to conception or
not be fought at all.
I am very skeptical about
this philosophy that calls for
preserving a life regardless of
the strikes against it. I believe
in the sanctity of life, but I
also believe that certain laws
of nature should be obeyed.
The sometimes spurned
but logically inescapable
theory of natural selection
must be applied to my argu­
ment. Although our inherent
human ego often forbids the
thought, we are subject to
natural selection, or at least
are meant to be, as is a shrew
or an antelope.
Until the last 100 or so
years those children born weak
or disfigured did not survive to
reproduce, let alone to suffer
for the greater glory of science
and those who overextend the
“right to life” philosophy.
I believe there is a great
amount of selfishness behind
that philosophy. Some people
who believe in it may have
strictly altruistic motives, but I
think many advocate it
because they feel pious in do­
ing so. In either case, those
who would not let a human die
when it is born with a fatal
defect are in reality not doing
a favor for either the in­
dividual or the human race.
Their efforts may result in a
functional person, but who is
to say the next or third genera­
tion of his or her family will
not inherit the same or similar
defect? The suffering may ex­
tend over generations. Or in
the case of the child I discuss­
ed at first, there may be no
suffering, only a pulse.
Clackamas Community College