When Does Life Begin

WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN?

A piece of legislation, HB 1572, is going through the state lawmakers. It has to do with abortion and I suspect stem cell research in an attempt to legislate against both. It is another attempt by people with ideological agendas to try and impose on science, medicine and people their beliefs. They do this because there is no evidence to support them so they try to go around it by making law. The idea, and this does have some opposition, is that life begins at conception. What life? Does this mean human life? What about the sperm and egg cells, are they not human life? And what about before that, parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc. Life begin a long time ago, not just when an egg gets fertilized. Ok, they then bring up the argument that life begins for a human being when the egg has a full compliment of chromosomes and has the potential for being a human being. This sounds just as ridiculous. Every cell in the body we know from experiments with cloning has the potential of forming a complete human being. So destroying a cell with a complete set of chromosomes and the potential of being a human being is a crime? If we take that argument to its logical conclusion then by the simple act of just scratching your nose, you then commit a holocaust. Now stem cell research will allows us to determine if it is a viable way to treat disease. We don’t know unless we do the research. They, the so called pro lifers, bring out some child who would have been aborted but is now a healthy child. What about your relative with a disease like diabetes, heart disease, emphysema, alzheimers, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, parkisons disease, etc who could potentially benefit from this research. You want them to be forever condemned to their diseases, the money and time in caring for them. What about the octomom, Nadya Suleman, who wanted all of her frozen embryos put in her. The consequences of that are not even realized yet. They will surely include large expense for society to take care of them, and life long medical problems as is the fate of the majority of premature babies that are born.
But I think this is a thinly veiled attempt to stop stem cell research here in North Dakota and along the way abortion. Now has anyone really thought about what the consequences of this are? If you make it a crime then what should the punishment be and for who? Obviously the would be mother would be a murderer and what should her punishment be, imprisonment for life or maybe the death sentence as that is what the pro lifers really like as justice. What will happen if abortion is outlawed, like it was between the late and 1800’s to 1973. In one study in 1932 it was estimated that illegal abortions or complications from them caused 15,000 deaths per year. When something is made illegal then it goes underground and we feel the consequences. We have a precedent the era of prohibition. The World Health Organization has data from a study in 2004 to show that this is what happens. Other countries made abortion illegal and the number of illegal abortions just jumped and the death rate skyrocketed. In some countries it isn’t even allowed to save a woman’s life, such as Chile, El Salvador and Malta. Again a measure of how precious life is to the pro life people. Is this is what you want for your sister, daughter or mother? This is muddled, ideologically, religiously driven thinking that has no basis in logic. As usual it doesn’t give any thought to the consequences of their actions, but is only a means to their selfish ends and to their minds righteous goals.
Peace
Skeptical DoDo