Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

Does Life Begin at Conception?

To my knowledge the bible is silent on the matter of life at conception. My belief was sparked by the unfolding of the various cell phenomena connected with conception and growth. The creation of a human being is one continuous explosion of cells, guided by information contained in genes of many types. If it is so continuous and explosive, and if it is guided by the information content within cells, then incremental division between non-life and life, or non-human and human is simply not possible. It must be registered as starting with conception. Life begins at conception, in this view.

If this isn’t so, then where is the real dividing line? Where is that point where life does not exist? Does someone have a meter that registers the lack of turn on of life in a fetus? Then too, why is it an issue? Why is it necessary to call one stage non-human-life and the very next stage human life? How does one find the precise point here in a maze of developing cells in the womb to perform a rational cut, and how do we know we have found it? Is it only because there are vested interests in having the option to abort? If so, that is not a particularly good reason—it is a horrible reason, in fact.

Of course I must grant that others believe differently. It is very difficult to understand why others believe that way, however, since we are talking about lives to be lived—or not. I vote for life, and in a real sense, I grieve for the some 14 million aborted lives in the last ten years. It must be so that others do not grieve, do not hurt. They may be the lucky ones.

It is not for me to judge them, either.

Update: If you take the viewpoint that life begins at conception, you open the door for some agonizing thoughts:

The 14 million abortions in the US over ten years, brought down to six years duration, results in 9 million deaths. This should be compared to:

--six years of auto deaths exceed: 250,000.

--six years of drowning events: 19,000.

--six years of soldier deaths in Iraq: 3,700.

--six years of gunshot deaths: 4,200.

Versus –six years of abortion deaths: 9,000,000.

We seem to grieve more for the soldiers nationally than for all other deaths, especially the 9 million aborted lives. There is a terrible disconnect here.

Labels: Abortion

# posted by Mannning @ 1:20 PM