Column by Dr. Ann Hollingsworth
With the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe versus Wade, we might be reminded of the battle between Pro-Choice and Pro-Life. The real heart of the issue is whether or not Life is the choice. This battle centers on the choice of life or death for an unborn child. In reality, we choose life or death every day that we take up space on planet Earth. If we look up the definition of life, we find that it includes the capacity to grow, reproduce, function, and change. On the other hand, death is the state of no longer having those vital processes occurring.
We probably tend to think if we are breathing and our heart is beating, that we are living. We are living in the sense of our physical vital processes functioning, but are we really growing, reproducing, changing, and functioning other than just to maintain existence. As children, these things are mostly controlled by the adults in our lives, but when we become ”grown-up,” those things fall under our own control and choices.
Graduation from high school tends to mark a passage from childhood to adulthood. However, this should not mark the end of growing and learning. We don’t have to continue formal schooling to continue to grow, change, and function more productively. We can choose to do that as we take advantage of learning by experience, from the wisdom of others in our lives, and by tapping into the vast amount of information that is available in so many resources.
Physics has a couple of laws that apply to everything in the universe. Inertia is the fact that a body at rest moving forward at a constant speed will continue that way unless acted on by a force. Entropy is the fact that the natural outcome of everything is to fall apart and deteriorate unless energy is used to avoid this. With both of these, in order to have “life” – we have to make a choice in that direction.
