Condemn and Condone

By Ding I. Generoso

Disturbing was the news we chanced upon inside the pages of a tabloid while preparing this issue on pregnancy. It told of fetuses-eight in all-found by police dumped in various places in Quezon City, three inside a church, two fished out of a creek, and three others in unnamed places. All these were discovered in a week's span. And that's just in Quezon City. There were two or three more in Pasay, and God knows how many more cases there were-reported or not-in other parts of Metro Manila or elsewhere in the country. Our writer, Lucio, for one, reports of a teenage mother-to-be who literally flushed her would-have-been-baby down the toilet like you know what. Michelle, on the other hand, narrated her first encounter with a six-month fetus being played with by kids at the foot of the MRT Magallanes station.

    Disturbing it was, not because we read it for the first time. We've read them all too often.

    But disturbing it was because, unlike say, the now forgotten execution of rapist Leo Echegaray or the still-to-be-solved murder of actress Nida Blanca, the story of the eight fetuses did not make headline news and elicit public concern or indignation.

    And more disturbing it was because-unlike when Echegaray was to be given the lethal injection-not a whisper of concern, not a word of protest, was heard in this instance from people whose crusade it is to propagate reverence for life to the point of preventing heinous criminals from being meted the death penalty for their crimes.

    Not a word from anyone. None from the parish priest from where the fetuses were found. Zilch from the priest who runs for all causes he could imagine would land him on the front pages of newspapers. Nada from the most eminent archbishop of Manila. Nothing from the Catholic Bishops Conference and the so-called pro-life groups. Zero from anti-death penalty senators and congressmen.

    But who cares? After all, they're just fetuses-unborn and still without a name that a reporter or news editor could call them. And so just as quietly as they were expelled from their mothers' wombs never to see the light of day, they went quietly into the night.

    Great is the likelihood that all eight fetuses were killed by choice; their lives terminated through abortion. With whatever instrument or whatever kind of drug matters not. The murder weapon may vary but it's still murder. For crime it is indeed in this country to kill a fetus by abortion.

    Yet, in the scores of years that the law has been enshrined in our statute books, we have yet to hear of a woman charged or convicted of killing her unborn child, or of a doctor or anyone being haled to court for assisting in the crime.

    Which is what disturbs us even more. For it is not to the defects of the judicial system that we may attribute it to. Rather to the hypocrisy that attends our view of life and abortion. For while we are quick to condemn abortion and cry against any suggestion to legalize it even for exceptional circumstances, we show not as much enthusiasm in at the very least reporting the crime to the authorities.

    And it saddens us to note that in the community of professionals who have taken a pledge to "consecrate [their lives] to the service of humanity and maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of its conception" are among those guilty at the very least of the sin of omission. (Let's not even talk about doctors who assist in abortion, but just those whose services are sought by women after committing an abortion.)

    We learned from doctors we asked that, by and large, no doctor or hospital would involve themselves in any litigation on abortion even if the woman-patient confesses to the crime.

    The principal reason, of course, is the confidential nature of everything that transpires between the doctor and the patient. That's part of the Hippocratic Oath. Some argue that were they to report and help prosecute women who confess to having had an abortion or those in whom they found evidence, other women who do the same might not come for treatment. And then there are those who quite simply don't want to be bothered by any police procedure or court proceedings and add strain on their job.

    Valid, the reasons may be. But we see something wrong.

    We believe confidentiality should never be invoked to hide a crime, and that every citizen and human being regardless of profession has a paramount duty to report a crime. A woman who seeks medical treatment and confesses to a doctor that she's gone through an abortion procedure is no different from a wounded man telling a doctor he got his wound in a duel with another man whom he happened to kill. In both cases, the doctor becomes aware of a crime that if he does not do something with makes him an accessory after the fact. In both instances, the patients may be considered "fugitives," in which case the doctor has a duty to report, if not turn them over, to the police or he may be accused of harboring a fugitive.

    Publilius Syrus said it better: "You yourself are guilty of a crime when you do not punish crime."

    That the doctor's first duty is to his patient, we don't argue. But the doctor's duty to his patient ends where his greater duty to society and humanity begins.

    It is precisely because we don't bother to report and correct wrongdoing that we encourage more wrongdoing. And unless doctors do their part, they will continue to be besieged by patients undergoing abortion (perhaps some of them, repeat offenders). For as Cicero says, "the greatest incitement to crime is the hope of escaping punishment."

    But since it would seem that nobody wants to "get involved" and simply want to pay lip service to the issue, then we might as well strike out from our statutes all references to abortion being a crime. No, we're not suggesting that we legalize abortion. All we're saying is let's "de-illegalize" it so that we don't unnecessarily make "criminals" of people who prefer to do nothing about it, including doctors.

    Neither are we saying that we favor abortion-for we condemn it in the strongest terms.

    But we cannot condemn and condone it at the same time.