What shall we call the unborn in the womb?
If the entity is a living thing, is it not a life? If your person
began as a single cell, how can that fertilized egg be something other
than a human being? Isn’t it more accurate to say you were an embryo
than that you simply came from one?
So when does a human being have a right to life?
Shall we say size matters? Is the unborn child too small to deserve
our protection? Are big people more valuable than little people? Are men
more human than woman? Do offensive linemen have more rights than
jockeys? Is the life in the womb of no account because you can’t hold
him in our arms, or put him in your hands, or only see her on a screen?
Shall we make intellectual development and mental capacity the
measure of our worth? Are three year-old children less valuable than
thirteen year-olds? Is the unborn child less than fully human because he
cannot speak or count or be self-aware? Does the cooing infant in the
crib have to smile or shake your hand or recite the alphabet before she
deserves another day? If an expression of basic mental acuity is
necessary to be a full-fledged member of the human community, what shall
do with the comatose, the very old, or the fifty year-old mom with
Alzheimer’s? And what about all of us who sleep?
Shall we deny the unborn child’s right to life because of where he
lives? Can environment give us value or take it away? Are we worth less
inside than outside? Can we be justly killed when we swim under water?
Does where we are determine who we are? Does the eight inch journey down
the birth canal make us human? Does this change of scenery turn “its”
into persons? Is love a condition of location? Continue at Kevin DeYoung
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