"CIDER HOUSE RULES--- The Abortion Controversy

Victor Bloom MD

Last year the movie "Citizen Ruth" portrayed the abortion controversy in vivid detail. Actress Laura Dern was a glue-sniffer, a down and out young woman who found herself pregnant. The authorities booked her and let her go with the understanding that she would get an abortion, as she was an unfit mother and her habit could damage the child within her body. She was a rebel and did not like what they asked her to do. As a result, she was caught up in the pro-life movement, which for her became a group of religious zealots, and then a pro-choice group, which was also filled with extremists. She became a poster-girl, a political football, a symbol first for one and then the other, until finally she got out of the middle to try to become her own person. We wished her good luck, but worried for her.

This year "Cider House Rules" after the novel by John Irving, tackles the abortion question in an even more incisive way, staying with strong characters with deep convictions and following their growth in wisdom through the years.

The story begins at an orphanage in St. Cloud's, Maine, where you go to "add a child to your life, or leave one behind." Dr. Larch, who rules benevolently, is beloved by his staff and orphans. At lights-out he salutes them: "Good night, you princes of Maine -- you kings of New England!" Larch is an old-fashioned progressive who would be a secular saint were it not for a few flaws, such as snuggling with his nurses and addicting himself to ether.

The good doctor Larch adopted a likeable young boy named Homer Wells after two sets of adoptive parents returned him to the orphanage. Repica Rolex The orphanage was run by this kindly doctor and his kindly nurse assistants, who took care of their charges in the most compassionate way. Only the doctor, an aging Michael Caine, felt bad about these orphans who were not wanted, and especially for the young women who died in the back alleys and from punctures by crocheting hooks. And so he practiced abortions on the side, raising money for the orphanage and doing desperate women a service in those days, the thirties and forties. He knew that if he didn't do the abortion with anesthesia and under sterile conditions, they would hurt themselves one way or the other, which could lead to maiming and death.

He trained Homer to be his assistant in the operating room, tutored him in all the details of being a doctor. He called him 'doctor' as a young man, an appelation Homer rejected, because he didn't go to medical school, didn't have a degree. Dr Larch insisted that he was better trained in the art of abortion than any formally trained medical student, and he was probably right. Hoping his charge would succeed him, he forged a medical degree. Near the beginning of the movie he asked the young man to do the abortion himself one time, but he refused. He probably refused on the basis that if he had been aborted back when, because he wasn't wanted, he wouldn't be alive today, a conclusion which makes a certain sense. He was against abortion for deeply personal reasons, even as he had experience and coaching by a skilled and dedicated abortionist. Dr Larch was angry at his refusal, attributed it to his youth, inexperience and lack of worldly wisdom.

There came a time for the young man to leave the orphanage and seek his fortune, at least to explore the outside world for the first time. He went with a young couple, the woman of which had an unwanted pregnancy and had an abortion. Her soldier boyfriend was there to help pay and provide emotional support. He had a convertible and Homer hitched a ride to wherever they were going. They were going to the soldier's family's apple orchard, where Homer was given a job picking apples with an itinerant crew of blacks. He seemed to love the change and the fresh air, and as a gentle and benevolent kid he got along with everyone.

When the soldier went off to war, he fell in love with the girlfriend, who couldn't stand to being alone, and so they had a fling. The apple pickers saw trouble coming but segregated themselves from the problems of the white folks. Later it turns out that they had more serious troubles of their own. The black crew boss' young daughter was pregnant and she confessed that the father was BOLD>her

The girl's father was not all bad; he was crushed with shame and guilt. The soldier came home paralyzed from war wounds and Homer had to face leaving his first love. It was sad but he was philosophical. Not surprisingly he returns to the orphanage to take his deceased mentor's place. We can only guess whether he continues to do abortions, but in any case we see that he has the same love for his orphans that his adoptive father had. He took the job he was groomed for, which is only natural.

Somehow the abortion controversy is lost in the larger framework of a coming-of-age story--- an orphan who learns about love and life in an orphanage, whose environment is full of complex contradictions and paradoxes, What we expect at the end is a person who is capable of moral relativism and flexibility, having seen the best and worst of people, one who has learned that no rule covers all eventualities. Life is complex and mysterious, a never-ending struggle, an endless learning experience, where many poor souls are broken, while a few survive and grow wise.

Dr Bloom is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and on the editorial board of the Wayne County Medical Society. He welcomes comments at his email address--- vbloom@comcast.net.