|
I just found out something interesting that I want to share and I didn't want to start a new thread for it, so I did a search for abortion.....
My friend currently lives in Japan, and has recently learned that the theoric father has to sign an agreement paper at the clinic before any abortion!
In the facts, any man can sign it if the potential father is unknown or unavailable. I guess that if the guy disagree or is unaware, girls just ask a friend to do that.
It is just an administrative formality, they don't run any paternity tests. I guess this is a means to make the guy feel as responsible as the girl so he does not take this lightly: abortion is painful in Japan, the abortive pill is not used, and they don't make the girl sleep. But then again, there is a long way to go concerning women "rights" in Japan.
Apart from that, it is not a country where the culture comes from one of the three religions of the book, and abortion is not seen in the same way at all.
The common belief is that when it happens, what can be seen as the equivalent to the "soul" is sent back in some kind of limbo, waiting for another birth in the same family or another one. There are even some specific ceremonies that you can perform at some shinto shrine to apologize for not being able to welcome it yet. I think it changes a lot the way you can handle this issue.
|