I have been caring for patients and their families for nearly 35 years. The majority of that time was spent in intensive care units or the emergency departments. When people came to me in cardiac arrest or other serious illnesses, we worked very hard to save them.
For some, we worked well over an hour before giving up because we could not re-establish a heartbeat. At that point, the doctor would pronounce the patient and that would be the official time that the patient's life ended: No heartbeat, no life.
Why then does it become a woman's right to have a doctor, who has sworn an oath to save and preserve life, stop a beating heart by performing an abortion? Are not all beating hearts pumping the blood that sustains that living being? I have heard heartbeats in women's wombs as early as 8-10 weeks into their pregnancy. I have seen women and fathers grieve when we have to tell them that the baby is no longer alive. The heart had stopped beating.
How do we legally differentiate one beating heart from another?
I will be asking that question of those who represent me and I hope that everyone else will when Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Women's Equality Agenda is brought to the floor for discussion.
There are many good aspects to this bill, but expanding abortion rights is not one of them.
There is not a more innocent life than that of the one still in the safety of the mother's womb and to end it at any point is just legalized murder.
Peter E. Masti
Ravena