Vic, it will be a shame if I keep this hidden in the comments section, so I took the liberty to post this up even before asking for you permission... can bah kan?
Vic's response to "What rights do we have..?"
Cider House Rules has been an inspiring piece of work, that came perfectly right at the time when we were still medical students trying to find a safe spot to stand on life-related ethical issues such as abortion, and making sense whether or not the end justifies the means on instances as such.
Do watch the movie or better still, read the novel. Below is a spoiler taken from wikipedia.
The Cider House Rules is a 1985 novel by John Irving. It has been adapted into a film and a stage play. The two central protagonists are Homer Wells, an orphan, and Dr. Wilbur Larch, who directs the orphanage in which Homer grows up.
From Homer's point of view, this is a coming-of-age story. After a childhood spent "being of use" as a medical assistant to Dr. Larch, Homer follows the classical Platonic arc from erotic love through love of family to love of civitas. This arc begins when Homer decides to leave the orphanage with Candy Kendall and her boyfriend Wally Worthington, a young couple who work at the Worthington family apple orchard. Wally leaves to fight in World War II, but his plane is shot down over Burma.
Believing Wally to be dead, Homer and Candy have an affair and Candy subsequently becomes pregnant. Candy secretly gives birth to a boy named Angel at the orphanage, and he becomes the first child to go home with its mother. Subsequently, Wally is found alive, and so Candy and Homer return home. They lie to the family about Angel's parentage, claiming that Homer decided to adopt him. Wally and Candy marry shortly afterwards, but Candy and Homer maintain a secret affair that lasts some 15 years.
In contrast, Wilbur Larch's coming-of-age, told in flashbacks, in a sense follows the Platonic arc in reverse. After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Wilbur turns his back on sex and on love, choosing instead to serve the community by helping women with unwanted pregnancies give birth and then keeping the babies in an orphanage. He makes a point of maintaining an emotional distance from the orphans, so that they can more easily make the transition into an adoptive family, but when it becomes clear that Homer is going to spend his entire childhood at the orphanage, Wilbur trains the orphan as a doctor and then comes to love him almost against his will.
Wilbur's and Homer's lives are complicated by the fact that the former is also secretly an abortionist at a time when abortion is illegal. He believes that he is doing the world a service because "one way the poor can help themselves would be to be in control of the size of their families." He comes to this work reluctantly, but is driven by seeing the horrors of back-alley operations. When Homer learns about this secret, he considers it evil, which leads to some angry interchanges between Homer and Wilbur.
Many years later, when Angel is a teenager, he makes friends with Rose Rose, the daughter of a migrant worker at the apple orchard, who becomes pregnant with her father's child, and Homer performs an abortion on her. Homer decides to return to the orphanage after the death of Dr. Larch, and works as the new director. This is the culminating love-of-civitas step in Homer's life. Homer and Candy eventually tell Angel that they are his biological parents.
The novel also follows a sub-plot of Melony, who grew up alongside Homer in the orphanage. She was Homer's first girlfriend in a relationship of circumstances. She eventually becomes an electrician and takes a female lover, Lorna.
Vic's response to "What rights do we have..?"
Hmm. I shy away mostly from making comments in blogs but that does not mean that I do not read your posts. It's become my daily routine to read the star online and your blog. It makes me feel like I am back home. Keep it up dude! Its good stuff. Alas, I cannot help but comment on this post...
I have no strong opinion on this matter but am reminded of the book Cider House Rules by John Irving now made into a movie. As you will remember Rod, this book speaks of the irony of a society and people that make rules for matters in which they have no experience of. In the story, the coloured workers living in wooden shacks of the cider house had to obey draconian rules made up by the white owners who lived in plush mansions. They were told how, where and when to live by a people that had never stayed in a wooden shack. How then can such people understand what it must be like to live in such a place? And if they cannot understand, how can they make the rules?
Likewise, can we make judgement and make a stand on matters like abortion if we are not and have never been in that situation?
And even if we have been there...who is to say that we are now able to dispense wisdom of 'don't worry, I know what it is like, I did this and so you must too...'?
I wonder what rules the coloured workers would put in place if they were given a free hand in this matter? Sure..there maybe some anarchy initially...but some semblance of maturity and sensibility would hopefully ultimately prevail.
I think more important than anything else...is that it was their decision and their rules.
To answer your question Rod.."What rights do we have?" I like to think that we have the right to make our own decision free from the coercion of the camps of the moral high ground, paternalistic doctors and pro-abortion "I've been there, so do what I do" people.
With some well rounded advice, we need to write our own 'Cider house rules' and make a decision for ourselves...that is after all what human beings do...for better or for worse.
The soul grows in the making of such decisions...for it is not an easy thing to do.05 April 2008 10:52
Cider House Rules has been an inspiring piece of work, that came perfectly right at the time when we were still medical students trying to find a safe spot to stand on life-related ethical issues such as abortion, and making sense whether or not the end justifies the means on instances as such.
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Do watch the movie or better still, read the novel. Below is a spoiler taken from wikipedia.
The Cider House Rules is a 1985 novel by John Irving. It has been adapted into a film and a stage play. The two central protagonists are Homer Wells, an orphan, and Dr. Wilbur Larch, who directs the orphanage in which Homer grows up.
From Homer's point of view, this is a coming-of-age story. After a childhood spent "being of use" as a medical assistant to Dr. Larch, Homer follows the classical Platonic arc from erotic love through love of family to love of civitas. This arc begins when Homer decides to leave the orphanage with Candy Kendall and her boyfriend Wally Worthington, a young couple who work at the Worthington family apple orchard. Wally leaves to fight in World War II, but his plane is shot down over Burma.
Believing Wally to be dead, Homer and Candy have an affair and Candy subsequently becomes pregnant. Candy secretly gives birth to a boy named Angel at the orphanage, and he becomes the first child to go home with its mother. Subsequently, Wally is found alive, and so Candy and Homer return home. They lie to the family about Angel's parentage, claiming that Homer decided to adopt him. Wally and Candy marry shortly afterwards, but Candy and Homer maintain a secret affair that lasts some 15 years. In contrast, Wilbur Larch's coming-of-age, told in flashbacks, in a sense follows the Platonic arc in reverse. After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Wilbur turns his back on sex and on love, choosing instead to serve the community by helping women with unwanted pregnancies give birth and then keeping the babies in an orphanage. He makes a point of maintaining an emotional distance from the orphans, so that they can more easily make the transition into an adoptive family, but when it becomes clear that Homer is going to spend his entire childhood at the orphanage, Wilbur trains the orphan as a doctor and then comes to love him almost against his will.
Wilbur's and Homer's lives are complicated by the fact that the former is also secretly an abortionist at a time when abortion is illegal. He believes that he is doing the world a service because "one way the poor can help themselves would be to be in control of the size of their families." He comes to this work reluctantly, but is driven by seeing the horrors of back-alley operations. When Homer learns about this secret, he considers it evil, which leads to some angry interchanges between Homer and Wilbur.
Many years later, when Angel is a teenager, he makes friends with Rose Rose, the daughter of a migrant worker at the apple orchard, who becomes pregnant with her father's child, and Homer performs an abortion on her. Homer decides to return to the orphanage after the death of Dr. Larch, and works as the new director. This is the culminating love-of-civitas step in Homer's life. Homer and Candy eventually tell Angel that they are his biological parents.
The novel also follows a sub-plot of Melony, who grew up alongside Homer in the orphanage. She was Homer's first girlfriend in a relationship of circumstances. She eventually becomes an electrician and takes a female lover, Lorna.
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