When does life begin? This is the single most important consideration that we must explore in the abortion debate. While for us, religious considerations are the most important, we can’t really use them in legal argument. Some religious traditions teach that a person is formed at conception, while others consider a baby a full person with their first “breath of life” as written in Genesis. Legally, the question really shouldn’t be that hard to answer. For clarity, I suggest we consider another question: when does life end? If we can understand when a person ceases to be a person and becomes just a body, then that will clarify the question of when a developing body becomes a person.
According to the Universal Declaration of Death Act (UDDA), a human being is dead—ceases to be a person—when there is irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain. It stands to reason, then, that once there is brain function in the fetus, it has legally become a person, with rights separate from the mother—if they have brain function, they are a person that deserves to live.
A reality of biology is that the mother’s body keeps a fetus alive, and this has led to many people calling an unwanted baby a “parasite” that can be aborted at will. We shouldn’t be naïve and think that we are any nobler, more civilized, or more “evolved” than people in centuries past or even the recent past. Naming people “parasites”, “cockroaches” or derogatory terms such as “useless eaters” has always been used by societies that desire the elimination of a minority. Perhaps the term fetus has begun to be used in this derogatory manner.
Fetus is Latin for “offspring,” but in popular culture it implies a “clump of cells.” Nobody feels bad about killing a “clump of cells” that is equivalent to a kidney, or a heart—just another organ. However, in order to be considered a fetus, a baby must have all organs in place. They’re just like you and me, just tiny, like a baby. Just when a fetus becomes a person is absolutely arbitrary right now in popular culture, as even babies who have been born alive have been lawfully “aborted” as they cried on a table.
When does a fetus become a person? Since a fetus has brain activity and all organs in place, a fetus is a person. The only difference between them and us is that they’re less developed. A fetus is a term of development that we use, just like infant, toddler, adolescent, or teenager. As Christians we need to be able to compromise in saying that before an embryo becomes a person, it could be conceivable to allow the law to permit abortions. We must get our definitions straight. After it can be proven that the embryo has become a person, then we must stop using the term abortion and call it for what it is: murder. The woman that encourages the killing of the person growing inside of her after a determined period of time has committed accessory to murder, and should be tried and considered as such. Enough talk about sympathy and compassion. No matter how hard your circumstances, if you have to kill a baby to feel like you have a chance at life, then you have crossed over to the rank of criminal. We have compassion on those who are innocent, not on those who commit murder or assist in murder.
The convenience of linking the term fetus with “parasites” or just “clumps of cells” is that they are at a stage of life where they can’t speak for themselves. They’re the perfect victim. No self consciousness, no ability to communicate accurately with anyone, totally dependent on someone else for its survival… they’re just like a new born baby or some elderly people in nursing homes.
And that is the main point. No matter how inconvenient a person might be, no matter how much pain their existence causes someone else, unjustly ending their life is still murder. It’s murder even if the old lady has dementia and doesn’t know the world she has lived in, and it’s murder even if the young baby hasn’t greeted the world yet. Not having consciousness does not reduce a person to the worth of an organ. We know this as a society. It’s just that we forget that it applies to all people, not just the ones we can empathize with.
- G. Lopez
According to the Universal Declaration of Death Act (UDDA), a human being is dead—ceases to be a person—when there is irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain. It stands to reason, then, that once there is brain function in the fetus, it has legally become a person, with rights separate from the mother—if they have brain function, they are a person that deserves to live.
A reality of biology is that the mother’s body keeps a fetus alive, and this has led to many people calling an unwanted baby a “parasite” that can be aborted at will. We shouldn’t be naïve and think that we are any nobler, more civilized, or more “evolved” than people in centuries past or even the recent past. Naming people “parasites”, “cockroaches” or derogatory terms such as “useless eaters” has always been used by societies that desire the elimination of a minority. Perhaps the term fetus has begun to be used in this derogatory manner.
Fetus is Latin for “offspring,” but in popular culture it implies a “clump of cells.” Nobody feels bad about killing a “clump of cells” that is equivalent to a kidney, or a heart—just another organ. However, in order to be considered a fetus, a baby must have all organs in place. They’re just like you and me, just tiny, like a baby. Just when a fetus becomes a person is absolutely arbitrary right now in popular culture, as even babies who have been born alive have been lawfully “aborted” as they cried on a table.
When does a fetus become a person? Since a fetus has brain activity and all organs in place, a fetus is a person. The only difference between them and us is that they’re less developed. A fetus is a term of development that we use, just like infant, toddler, adolescent, or teenager. As Christians we need to be able to compromise in saying that before an embryo becomes a person, it could be conceivable to allow the law to permit abortions. We must get our definitions straight. After it can be proven that the embryo has become a person, then we must stop using the term abortion and call it for what it is: murder. The woman that encourages the killing of the person growing inside of her after a determined period of time has committed accessory to murder, and should be tried and considered as such. Enough talk about sympathy and compassion. No matter how hard your circumstances, if you have to kill a baby to feel like you have a chance at life, then you have crossed over to the rank of criminal. We have compassion on those who are innocent, not on those who commit murder or assist in murder.
The convenience of linking the term fetus with “parasites” or just “clumps of cells” is that they are at a stage of life where they can’t speak for themselves. They’re the perfect victim. No self consciousness, no ability to communicate accurately with anyone, totally dependent on someone else for its survival… they’re just like a new born baby or some elderly people in nursing homes.
And that is the main point. No matter how inconvenient a person might be, no matter how much pain their existence causes someone else, unjustly ending their life is still murder. It’s murder even if the old lady has dementia and doesn’t know the world she has lived in, and it’s murder even if the young baby hasn’t greeted the world yet. Not having consciousness does not reduce a person to the worth of an organ. We know this as a society. It’s just that we forget that it applies to all people, not just the ones we can empathize with.
- G. Lopez