Infanticide just a late, late abortion?

by Jonathon Van Maren
Mon Sep 12, 2011

On April 13, 2005, 19 year old Katrina Effert secretly gave birth to a baby boy in her parent’s home. She then strangled the child with her underwear, and tossed the corpse over the fence into the yard of one of the neighbours.

On September 9, 2011, CBC reported that Ms. Effert’s conviction for this murder had been ‘downgraded’ by an Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench judge to infanticide, and in lieu of jail time she will merely serve a suspended sentence.

In her argument, the judge stated that “while many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion as a less than ideal solution to unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancy, they generally understand, accept, and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers, especially mothers without support.” the rest

This tragic event should be seen as a warning to Canadians. When a judge literally uses abortion as an excuse for infanticide in a court statement, and compares the two as pretty much the same thing, we should recognize that this worldview is not inconsistent with the one of “choice”. This is not even the first time infanticide has been excused - Harvard ‘ethicist’ Peter Singer even endorses it. However, if children are not valuable simply because they are children, their value will be based on other criteria. When the value of one class of human beings is downgraded, we should all take note. It is up to each of us to decide. Should humans have the “choice” to kill others?