The crimes that are not crimes

The world and her laws are such that I sometimes think things need to be adjusted and adopted through ethics and morals. Anything that is against life should be tagged as an offensive crime and made punishable. But what can I say? Most of the bad happenings are being overlooked because, upon deeper inspection, they are not technically considered crimes according to the law, even when they are clearly hurtful to humans.

I read a story about a doctor who was consulted by a 24-year-old lady. She had been married for two years without a child and came to him with complaints. Upon diagnosis, it was discovered that her fallopian tubes were blocked, and she would not be able to give birth anymore unless she underwent surgery—with a 10/10 difficulty level. The blockage of her fallopian tubes was due to the 13 abortions she had in her previous relationships. Not just that—she was also tested HIV positive before she got married, and she intentionally hid her status from her husband because she didn’t want to miss the opportunity of getting married.

I know you may want to ask, "Did they not run an HIV test before the marriage?" They did. In fact, the test was done twice, and both she and her husband were declared negative. But here’s the twist—she bribed the lab scientist to issue a false negative result.

What do you have to say about this kind of situation?

Apart from the bribery of the lab scientist to falsify the test result—which is the only clearly recognizable crime under the law—the abortions and the lie about her HIV status are seen as normal occurrences in our day-to-day life.

You see why I support the idea that morals and ethics should be involved in the process of making laws? The trend of some happenings in our world today is appalling. Come on—it's not only a knife that can be used to stab someone and destroy them. One can actually pull certain strings—actions not considered offenses under current laws—to completely ruin someone’s life. Let what is bad be bad, and let it be seen as a crime.

Do you know that one of the major driving forces behind the rampant internet fraud we see today in Africa is the perception that these acts are not really criminal in nature? Hey, don’t get me wrong—internet fraud is indeed an offense and is against the law. But these days, people claim that as long as they are not seen with a gun or knife, breaking into someone’s house or bank to steal, it should not be a concern to law enforcement agencies. After all, the money they are stealing is not from within Africa but from outside the continent, and the victims are not complaining. This is why even religious leaders and parents sometimes fail to address its negative implications—because it is not strongly condemned by the law.

This same thing applies to abortion too. Abortion is killing, but people boldly engage in it.

Thanks for reading.

Photo source: MetaAI