The Hearts of a Mother and her Child are Connected
◎謝果馨 Guo- Xin Xie
不是生出來才連心，一受胎就母子連心，媽媽心裏想什麽，孩子完全知道。 The connection between the hearts of a mother and her child begins even before the child is born.; it starts when the child is still in the womb. The child knows exactly what his or her mother is thinking.
I teach Buddhism to children. I remember once I talked to several parents about the principle of no killing. I told them that having an abortion is a form of killing, because it is taking the life of a living human being. However, a number of younger mothers in the group disagreed. Then, a mother responded by telling us the story of her three year old daughter. Mrs. Ye told us that she always planned to have only two children, so when her second child was born, she started to use contraceptives. To her surprise, after a number of years, she got pregnant again. She felt that it would be difficult to raise three children, so after getting her husband’s consent, she decided to abort the fetus that was several weeks old.
That evening, she dreamed about a cute little girl who told her, “Mom, please don’t get rid of me. I will be very good.” For three consecutive nights, Mrs. Ye had the same dream. She realized that her daughter was pleading with her not to have an abortion. After these dreams, Mrs. Ye didn’t have the heart to go through with an abortion, so she didn’t terminate her pregnancy and gave birth to a baby girl.
When I met this little girl, she was already three years old. She is very obedient, clever and cute, and she really likes to clean the bathroom for her mother. Mrs. Ye’s story confirms that abortion is a form of killing; in fact, by having an abortion we would be killing not just anyone, but our own child. There is a saying that “the hearts of a mother and her child are connected.” This connection begins even before the child is born; it starts when the child is still in the womb. The child knows exactly what his or her mother is thinking. This connection is also captured by the saying, “education starts in the womb.” We can imagine how pitiful it would be for a little baby who knows that his or her mother is planning to terminate his or her life. This baby’s fear and helplessness turns into hatred and resentment when he or she is killed. How can anyone bear this? Please think carefully before you act!
