I listened to a very intriguing news report that discussed the issue of mental distress caused by having abortions. It had often been stated that a woman who has an abortion will frequently suffer from psychological distress, depression and other potential difficulties. A recent study has however revealed that no psychological distress results from women having abortions. The findings of this study have sparked a lot of debate. I urge you to listen to this 4 minute clip of the news report and tell me what you think. (Click on the link below and then click on "Start Download")
http://www.mediafire.com/?jydiveyptnv
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5 comments:
I tried to listen to it but I failed to understand it because of my poor listening and tight time. Do you have its transcript? Or do you know where I can find it? Thanks.
Mei-ling
Mei-Ling
Sorry, I don't have a transcript available. Just try giving it another listen or two. If there are still parts you're unclear about, I'll transcibe them myself.
- Paul
i think the doctor in this clip has her points. It's reasonable that it's not a single incident that caused depression but all the little things in the past that made people sick mentally....
But i oppose abortion regardless of whether it caused depression or not. So i dont really understand why there would be a lot of debates about it. Does it make people feel bad that abortion doesn't cause depression?
Jennifer:
The issue isn't about whether abortion is right or wrong, but rather to clear up this issue regarding whether or not women who have had abortions have suffered serious "mental distress" long after the event.
The reason for the interest and the controversy is that the anti-abortion movement has for many years used this argument to dissaude women from seeking abortions. It was taken as a truism for a long time until this recent piece of research was done. Currently, anti-abortion (Right to Life) groups are concerned that these results may influence more young women to seek an abortion rather than other alternatives.
What I think is most intriguing about this story is that it demonstrates once again the ever growing divide between science and religion, the empirical values versus moral ones.
- Paul
Thanks for explanation, now I understand why there are people unhappy with the result.
Abortion is terrible, but having unwanted children and raising these children in bad environment are more serious problems. People ought to consider what is the lesser of two evils if they unfortuantly have an unwanted child. But I understand these groups' concerns that young women may be even more careless about getting pregnant if they could abort without severe consequences.
In this case, it's better to acknowldege the facts rather than argue with the result if the research was done in a credible way. For me, as long as they don't start to clone human beings I am fine with all the studies and advancements in the science world.
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