According to WorldNet Daily News, Planned Parenthood is pleading with the U.S. District Court in Chicago to open a new abortion clinic in suburban Aurora this week, even though a city investigation into its “deceptive practices” has not been finished. The longstanding philosophical justification behind PP's urgency to destroy innocent life: personhood does not begin until birth. But this is bogus reasoning.
The answer to the question “When does a person become a person?” lies in what ethicists call the continuity of personal identity. That sounds really complicated but all it means is this: from his humble beginnings as a single-cell zygote, all the way through pre-school, puberty, adulthood, and, ultimately, until death, man is involved in an uninterrupted process of maturation. Even though he may look shockingly different at age seventy-five than he did while an embryo, he is the same, in essence, at every stage.
For example, a balding ninety-year-old man with scarily long, porcupine-like eyebrows is still the same person that he was at conception, though in a very different stage of development. Despite the stark contrast in his appearance (between then and now), there has been, as medical ethicist Scott Rae argues, “no morally relevant break in the process.” One scientist comments: “The human being is the same human being at every stage. Change is the very essence of life. This is the fundamental scientific truth on which all our moral analysis must be built.” If I can break it down a little, what they’re saying is: people change. It is a part of life. And personhood is inextricably connected to that continuity of identity, which, like life, begins at the very moment of conception. Scientist Bruce Carlson, concludes, “The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.”
In light of this understanding the words of Genesis 9:5-6 make greater sense: “And from each man, too I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” The sanctity of life is linked to personhood for to take a life (at any stage) is to destroy the image of God.
The only morally responsible conclusion that we can come to in light of the above truth is to say that since every human being is a reflection of God’s image, even at the time of conception—the earliest stage of this continual process of growth—the life of every human being is sacred, regardless of his or her stage of development.
2 comments:
rpZSVcpeGreat article. Planned Parenthood is one of the greatest oxymorons ever. But I suppose they would not have been as successful or had the finacial support they've enjoyed or misled so many if they had called themselves what they really are: Premeditated Murder.
And just how successful have they been in destroying innocent life? PP just completed a survey trying to justify abortion (state sanctioned)saying how unsafe it is for women in the third world countries were it is not legal and the numbers were quite distrubing. According to the survey, in Africa where abortion is not legal there are 17 abortions for every 100 births, in America it is 33 abortions to every 100 births. In Eastern Europe, it 105 abortions to every 100 births.
The procedures may be safer for women in the so called developed countries, but it is far more deadly for the unborn child.
Harrowing statistics, mds. May God help us to be shrewd as serpents and harmless as doves as we combat the heinous taking of lives.
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