Common sense

“It’s just common sense.” It’s a phrase that is used often in our society. As I live my life, I sense that common sense is, indeed, not very common.

In Toronto the other day, a man stabbed his pregnant wife to death. Doctors tried to deliver the child, whose heart was still beating, by caesarian section, but it died.

In Ontario, the man will be tried only for the murder of his wife. His unborn child is not considered a human being in our laws. Somewhere along the way lawyers and scientists have determined that an unborn baby is a fetus.

Just like we call cows beef and sheep mutton, we seem to be giving a living creature another name to soften the death.

Common sense tells me that an unborn baby is a human being. Ask any mother who wants the birth of her child whether it is a human being and the answer will be yes. I have never heard a pregnant woman talk about a fetus kicking in her womb. The word used has always been child.

Common sense tells me that if children can be born prematurely and live, then those who are still in the womb at the same age are at the same level of development, capable of being born and kept alive.

Common sense tells me that it is wrong for people to terminate the life of their child because it is not the gender that they want.

Yes, I have heard the arguments about the women who have died at the hands of butchers in back alleys. I have listened to stories about pregnant girls who are in this state due to rape or a family member. Frankly, I don’t have all of the answers, and that, perhaps, is because each case is different.

I have yet to hear a good argument, though, why it is ok to get rid of an unborn child merely because it is a girl instead of a boy.

However, common sense tells me that this man took more than one life the other day. Common sense tells me that he should be held accountable for the death of his child, too.

But, then again, there are times when I wonder how much common sense there is in this world.