Now imagine a different situation, again with a toddler. This time there\u2019s one lifeguard present on duty. There is a former lifeguard present, but she\u2019s not working. There are no other people in the pool. The toddler runs into the deep end of the pool. The lifeguard is distracted by something and doesn\u2019t realize that the toddler is in the pool. The toddler could drown. In this case, the responsibility of the off-duty lifeguard is heightened<\/strong> because she alone can save a vulnerable person when no one else reasonably can. If she didn\u2019t exercise her heightened responsibility, she would have to live with that tragic inaction the rest of her life.<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that the child within the womb is totally dependent on the mother. Nobody else can care for her pre-born child as she can. This situation has heightened her responsibility rather than lessened it. That\u2019s why pregnant women are warned about taking certain drugs which could harm their pre-born children, where other people may not be negatively affected.<\/p>\n Too often in the abortion debate, dependency is treated as a negative value, rather than a natural, often temporary phase of human life. This way of thinking is pervasive in the United States on so many levels. Yet there are many situations in life where one\u2019s responsibility is a positive factor and is heightened, not lessened. In fact, there are at times \u201clifeguards\u201d present in the form of family, community, churches, and pregnancy centers.<\/p>\n When a baby is born, parents care for this child If they\u2019re unable to do so for one reason or another, the child can be placed for adoption or brought to a safe haven, where others are prepared and expected to take on responsibility for the newborn. Society recognizes that dependency calls forth care, not abandonment.<\/p>\n Likewise, when a woman is pregnant, her child bears no responsibility for coming into existence. The responsibility rests with the mother, at least until the child is viable. Yet she doesn\u2019t have to face her pregnancy alone. In many cases an unexpected or untimely pregnancy can become a catalyst for addressing underlying difficulties and eventually finding practical solutions. These realizable solutions can offer the woman a fuller and more stable life than she may have imagined before the pregnancy.<\/p>\n Leah Libresco Sargeant captures this powerfully in her book The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto<\/em> (p. 2): \u201cWomen\u2019s bodies and relationships are shaped by dependence, which makes us exceptional and unwelcome in a world that expects men and women to be autonomous (or at least pretend to be). A world that is unwilling to acknowledge dependence as foundational to human life is unable to treat women as equal in dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>At various stages and circumstances of life outside of the womb, humans are also dependent upon others. \u00a0Our value as\u00a0 human beings is not magically bestowed on us when we gain the ability to care for ourselves, nor do we lose our dignity or humanity when we cannot. Newborns, infants, conjoined twins (who depend on one another for survival), people with significant disabilities or serious brain injuries, the elderly with infirmities, especially with dementia, and people under anesthesia during surgery are all fully dependent on others for care and survival. In all of these situations\u2014and many more\u2014dependency increases responsibility, especially when there are no reasonable alternatives. Dependency does not diminish a person\u2019s humanity; it reveals our obligation to protect and care for one another.<\/p>\n In some ways, the baby is more dependent after birth than before birth. In the womb, the child depends primarily on the mother maintaining healthy habits and attending regular medical appointments. After birth, a newborn baby is totally dependent, and their care requires many people and many actions: providing breast milk or baby formula, feeding the baby multiple times a day, purchasing and assembling a crib and placing the baby numerous times in the crib to sleep or holding them if they can\u2019t sleep, buying baby clothes; changing their diapers several times a day, taking them to a doctor, including getting vaccines, and eventually introducing the baby to extended family members and community.<\/p>\n This shows that when dependency exists after birth, society recognizes a shared and unavoidable responsibility to protect life, even when biological parents cannot provide care themselves.<\/p>\n We cannot assign or withdraw people\u2019s value (in other words, penalize them)<\/em> based on how dependent they are at any given moment on life\u2019s continuum.\u00a0Dependency is a fundamental feature of the human condition, present from the beginning of life until its natural end. Far from being a flaw, dependency is an ordinary and widespread part of what it means to be human.<\/p>\n ===============================<\/p>\n Other posts from Jim Hewes include:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Abortion When it Involves a Rape:<\/strong>\u00a0See the Faces<\/a><\/p>\n Presenting about Abortion: Sharing Experiences<\/a><\/p>\n Abortion and Other Issues of Life: Connecting the Dots<\/a><\/p>\n Reflections from My Decades of Consistent Life Experience<\/a><\/p>\n Consistent Life History: Being Across the Board<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\nDependency and Principled Responsibility<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nPregnancy and Shared Responsibility<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Dependency Before and After Birth<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Conclusion: Dependency as a Human Good<\/strong><\/h3>\n