Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Beginning of Human Life

http://forums.tennessean.com/posting.php?mode=reply&t=19981&c=5&d=1&sid=d8e4ae1db4f23609c46ca2b9b8493e67

"ESC research is morally and ethically problematic. Egg and sperm unite to form at least one unique human being. To disassemble this early human, even if it does not yet possess arms and legs or the ability to think, is to harm the most vulnerable among us: This is a moral wrong."

It amazes me how easy it is to jump to the conclusion that human life begins with the union of sperm and egg.  Most writers would say "a unique, human life begins with the union of sperm and egg".  You know better don't you?  That's why you say "AT LEAST ONE human life.  You must know that identical twins begin their seperate lives after several days when the group of cells the fertilized egg has become by that time splits.  Have you thought about what this fact does to the idea of a unique human soul beginning its life on earth at the moment of fertilization of the egg with the sperm?  Do two souls enter at that time?  Does the one soul that enters split with the twinning act?  Or does unique, human life begin at some other point of development?

You probably have heard of some other problems with the idea of the spirit entering the body at fertilization.  The idea that the fertilized egg is a unique, little human person with a soul and all the rights of any human being on earth leads to some difficulties.  People who hold that belief should be absolutely opposed to the process of Invetro Fertilization.  Many, many fertilized eggs are produced for every baby born.  Many fertilized eggs are destroyed every year.  How can people, who believe that fertilized eggs are human beings in every sense allow the Invetro Fertilization process to take place?

You probably also know that more than half of all fertilized eggs die early in the development process.  That leads to the interesting idea that more than half of the souls we would meet in heaven would be from those babies that never developed.

People, who believe that the fertilized egg is a unique human soul, should be very afraid of birth contol pills.  a quick check of the internet will show that there is a possible danger of killing the fertilized egg by introducing birth contol substances into the mother's body.  Why do people who are so opposed to destruction of the human embryo for embryonic stem cell research say nothing about the evil affects of birth control pills.

The Jewish faith, held by many in the United States, believes that a unique human life begins with the first breath.  They base that on the idea in the Bible that God took up dust from the Earth to create a body.  When God blew into that body, life began. 

The Muslim faith, also held by many in the United States, believes that human life begins at a later point in pregnancy. 

Jumping to the conclusion that unique human life begins with fertilization leads to many problems.  Surely, american society's agreement with that position should not be assumed.  Inconsistancies on the part of those who do believe in the creation of a unique human being at the point of fertilization should be explained and supported by appropriate action.

My suspicion is that supporters what to have it both ways.  They want birth control but want to be able to ban research on embryos.  They want invetro fertilization but don't want to admit that many fertilized eggs with ultimately be destroyed because of the procedure.   They don't want to talk about all the people who don't agree with their thoughts on the beginning of human life.  Finally, they don't want to study modern biology to find out how gradual and involved our developement is.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I very much enjoyed your thoughts on the issue.

Thanks for your support!

Joe

aim: jojodachemist