Dr. Ray L. Winstead
Professor of Biology (retired),
Indiana University of
Pennsylvania
We Pro-life advocates are very confident that our position is morally correct and scientifically justified. Just as today we think that slavery is morally wrong and wonder how it was even possible in the past for someone to have a different point of view, years from now our society's current policy of uncontrolled abortions will be considered to be in the same immoral category as slavery.
From a biological point of view, to me, the pre-born child is a separate, individual person with unique, defining DNA - with an inalienable right to life - rather than just a throw-away part of the mother's body. There may be reasons why you think abortion is reasonable, but you must at least admit to yourself that a unique person is being killed for those reasons. Are your reasons really good enough to kill another person? Shame on us as a society to allow this to continue.
Infants outside the womb can't survive on their own either; we must care for the dependent, not kill them. I think everyone will agree that a newborn baby cannot survive independently without our help. Does that mean that the newborn can also morally just be allowed to die - or killed outright? Is a newborn worthy of continuing to live? I believe the answer to that question is, of course, yes - which, likewise, also means that the unique, individual, pre-born baby is also worthy of life, and we have the moral responsibility to protect the preborn - just as we have the responsibility to protect the newborn.
Based on the state laws and proposals by Democrats in New York, Virginia, Vermont, and others - to include the highest "leaders" in the federal government - I guess I am now, at this moment anyway, legally obligated - and bullied - to totally discount any knowledge about biology and conclude that the new individual developing inside the mother’s body is just an amorphous blob and just an insignificant part of the mother's body before the instant of birth.
If Pro-Choice advocates would just acknowledge that abortion kills a unique human child, then perhaps a reasonable discussion could occur about the extreme cases that may arise - extreme cases worth killing the child.
I do believe in the principle of mortal self-defense in extreme circumstances. However, I also believe that convenience does not meet the threshold for mortal self-defense. A close examination of the particular circumstances would be in order - still within the context that killing a child is at stake.
In general, people must take responsibility for their previous decisions. For example, the man responsible for a woman's pregnancy should also be held legally accountable for the support of the child.
It appears to me that unrestricted abortion is an index of the way many people today view the value of human life - except their own. Indeed, the policy of unrestricted abortion contributes to, and even fosters, an attitude of a decreasing value of human life - sure to spill over into other damaging activities that will become even more common and detrimental to society as a whole.
Many in today’s society want to answer the question “At what point is it OK to kill your own pre-born baby?” with the answer “anytime is OK.” If you disagree with this conclusion, then you are vilified, intimidated, censored, and bullied. So be it. I know whose side I’m on. History has often shown that the majority and legal thought of the time eventually changes to become more enlightened later.
Yes, we as individuals and society certainly need to do a much better job in caring for young mothers and their children after the children are born – as well as caring for others in our society who need help. That is certainly a worthwhile goal of paramount importance for all members of society, individually and collectively, to endorse and then work toward achieving. We Pro-Life advocates do not minimize the importance of those objectives - in spite of what Pro-Choice proponents would have you believe about us. I believe that the fundamental basis of that caring begins with the acknowledgement that the pre-born child is a full member of our society – with the same rights as the rest of the members of our society.
I think the first step is for individuals and society to acknowledge what the American College of Pediatricians says about “When Human Life Begins:”
“The predominance of human biological research confirms that human life begins at conception – fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment in order to grow and develop. The difference between the individual in its adult stage and in its zygotic stage is one of form, not nature. This statement focuses on the scientific evidence of when an individual human life begins.”
“The American College of Pediatricians concurs with the body of scientific evidence that corroborates that a unique human life starts when the sperm and egg bind to each other in a process of fusion of their respective membranes and a single hybrid cell called a zygote, or one-cell embryo, is created.”
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