RICHARD Congram, in “Unborn on ‘death row’ ignored” (Have your Say, CL 27/11/05), vividly described the dilemma that arises when our society, through abortion, arbitrarily deems an unborn child’s life largely worthless, while condemning Singapore for just as arbitrarily deeming a convicted drug dealer’s life worthless.
The tragedy of double standards then leads into a farcical situation.
When faced with the consequences of declining birth rates and population ageing that slowly but surely undermine a future society’s tax base, our Federal Government then spends taxpayer funds through baby bonuses to encourage women to have a baby.
Simultaneously, another arm of the same government, Medicare, in the name of health, spends tax money to subsidise women who destroy their unborn child thereby in effect helping to undermine the same future Australian government’s tax base.
Yet everyone knows that judging by the huge number of estimated abortions (actual numbers deliberately concealed?) that are subsidised by the taxpayer, there surely should have been a huge women’s public health crisis which should have spilled over into other areas of women’s health.
There is no evidence of any such crisis and one has to assume that abortion in the overwhelming majority of cases is a non-medical lifestyle choice not unlike cosmetic surgery that is not subsidised by Medicare.
Why does our Government persist with this farce?
GEORGE SZYLKARSKI
Graceville, Qld
