29. Life Dependency

Synopsis - Dick gets drunk at a party in a hospital and wakes up being a volunteer organ extension to a terminally ill violinist. He's gotta be hooked up for 9 months else the violinist will die. Dick protests but it's too late. Is it his fault or should he kill, essentially murder, the violinist?

Baggini reveals that this story is an analogy to the whole abortion issue. Dick's problem was that he got drunk. Completely self-inflicted and he's completely aware of his crime. But he didn't want to end up being a volunteer and especially not hooked up to another life for 9 months. The doctor tells him that he doesn't have a choice, that his 'partner' would die if he detached himself from him, and Dick needs to be 'locked in' for that time, just as a pregnant woman would be. Just like Dick, there are women who make this living, breathing mistake. Some then choose to wind up the pregnancies through abortion.

Beyond ending a life, the matter of choice for women to do this has been a thorny issue for quite a while. Dick will kill off an individual - a violinist with the ability to communicate, think and express himself if he unplugged himself. A pregnant woman on the other hand would abort a 'thing'? Undeveloped, many pro-choice activists would argue that the foetus isn't quite an individual.

Perhaps, as Baggini has mentioned, it is about taking responsibility. When screwing up means being stuck with a situation, one should 'man up' and admit the crime and do the time. I take the anti-abortion stance. Spending time with my less than one year old nephew has allowed me to experience the joys (and pains) of raising a kid. But a life is something that can be nurtured and moulded to something better than ourselves.