Libertarian journalist Richard Hanania's recent five-word social media post was both intellectually and emotionally provocative:
For those who might have missed it, the quick backstory is that 31-year-old Adriana Smith was eight weeks pregnant when she went to the hospital with intense headaches. She received medication and was released, only to wake up gasping for breath the next morning. When her boyfriend got her to the emergency room at Emory University, it was determined she had multiple blood clots in her head, and doctors declared her medically brain dead.
Emory doctors told Smith's family they could not remove her from life support since she was pregnant. According to them, doing so would have violated Georgia's law against killing an unborn child after his or her heartbeat is detected. Though the Republican Attorney General in Georgia disputes that claim, pointing out that the removal of life support is not an act intended to proactively kill a child, it has nonetheless become fodder for left-wing and libertarian culture warriors like Hanania.
After he gained traction with his initial jab at the conservative right for its insistence on outlawing child killing, he followed up with this:
I may be missing something, but I don't think this is the flex that Hanania clearly assumes it to be. Is the attention-seeking journalist actually suggesting that if he were in Smith's shoes, he would want his baby to perish along with him? That kind of macabre self-absorption should repulse any compassionate human being, right, left, or anywhere in between. Unfortunately, it has become depressingly more common in our postmodern society. This exchange in the comment section of Hanania's post perfectly depicts the cultural divide:
Not only did Smith's child "have a chance," it appears that Adriana's son will survive:
April Newkirk told WXIA-TV that 31-year-old Adriana Smith's baby was born prematurely by an emergency cesarean section early Friday, the Atlanta station reported Monday night. She was about six months into her pregnancy. The baby, named Chance, weighs about 1 pound and 13 ounces and is in the neonatal intensive care unit.
'He's expected to be okay,' Newkirk told the TV station. 'He's just fighting. We just want prayers for him.'
Never mind the fact that baby Chance obliterates the illogic of "My Body, My Choice" posturing - all of Adriana's body parts perished with her, Chance did not - there's a much greater storyline here.
Amid the dark clouds of trauma hanging over Smith's poor family, her baby offers more than a silver lining. He offers a bodily link to a lost soul, Adriana's living legacy. In his eyes, his smile and laugh, Adriana's family will be gifted a lasting memory of her light and joy.
Richard Hanania wants me and the "American right" to feel bad about that?
Sorry Richard, despite your allegiance to a nihilistic view of life that would reduce humanity's worth down to a self-indulgent utilitarianism, there are thankfully many who know better and are still willing to save others from the consequences of your folly.
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Not the Bee or any of its affiliates.
