Had to take a work break. Quite vocal I see, well this is better entertainment than the news. Lets look at the concept that life began at conception. That is very easily dealt with, it did not. For those of you that take the bible literally, life began once , when God created it. For those that believe in evolution, life began once........hmmm..... when the correct mix of pre-amino acid chemicals in a mudhole was struck by lightening which somehow provided energy.....as Jay Leno would say, Erie Similarity. Ether way, life supposedly began once. If it did not then there should be life just popping up randomly. So far, no evidence of that. So lets go with the one time theory as the prevalent model.
When then does life begin? We just answered that- ONCE, long long ago, far far away. The cells contributed by each parent are living organisms, at no time were they dead, they were never inert, inorganic matter. When they unite they create conditions that will lead to an organism that will ultimately be able to separate from the host organism. There may be a separate organism, there is no "new " life , just continuity. What you are talking about then, is a "soul" , that part of the human identity that separates us from the animals (our go up, theirs go down). That makes the question about just when that arrives, not simply life. I think that God "breathed the breath of life on Adam, and he became a living soul". I guess before he was breathing, he was absent a soul ?? But I digress.
There are those here who seem to be concerned about MY soul, commendable and quite thoughtful of you, so I do appreciate the gesture. Some think I may have sold it, I assure you I have not. I assure that had I sold it I would have had compensation. I have had no riches, fame , comfort, or health. I have not even had any offers.
I have never seen a soul. My lab reports have never turned one up, never appeared on a CAT or PET scan, or an MRI. In six decades I have never seen a ghost, My mother did, my wife says she has, or at least the manifestation of one. I would really like to see one, I have looked closely too. A great many people believe in them also, even people for whom I have great respect. I never say that the soul cannot exist, I just have no evidence for it.
I do have evidence of thousands of years of people trying to control others through fear, superstition and violence. I do not remember Jesus as being real militant. You know what he said about taxes. Most of you are sure hesitant to render unto Caesar though.....And I believe when Peter cut off the soldiers ear he healed it. He was not real big on the money lenders either. I bet they would have made great hedge fund managers!! And then there was the deal about the mote and the beam....never an optometrist when you need one. I don't remember that he recommended performing a colonoscopy with a hot poker as a good means of converting non-believers, like they did during the spanish inquisition . In fact, although I know thousands of people who constantly reference the Bible as an authority that overlook an instruction that seems to stand out to me.... pardon me if my quote is not exact. "There was a certain rich man who asked Jesus, Master, what shall I do to enter heaven, and Jesus told him to sell all his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor.... and he went away sad". I dont seem to hear the same level of passion calling for everyone to do that. Maybe if there were, there would be fewer abortions. More cancer research. Genetic research. Alzheimers research. Research on juvenile diabetes. The shortest verse in the bible. Jesus wept. He still does I am sure, at the torturous, contorted, convoluted crap that humanity has made of what he had in mind.
This is supposed to be a discussion of a constitutional protection for human fetus' / "child" from "conception.
Lets just be more pragmatic for a moment, and go to the secular side. Lets say it passed and we now have the law in place. You are planning to have sex. You will need to notify the government, because if the egg is fertilized you will need to be able to accurately document that point in time. If you are a life insurance company you will need to issue another policy, and probably change the rates and charges. The tax deduction should start then. If the mother is working, there are now two people on the job. Do they have to pay extra wages? Do risk factors for workers comp change? If the mother does not eat right, or exercise enough, can the child then sue ?
Most of the people on these forums are second amendment advocates, they dont want a national register of firearms. Since mothers can be identified (usually) easily, how about the fathers? How about creating a national DNA registry, after all, we need to be able to positively identify the parents. We would not want to wrongly tax someone, assign child support, inheritance.
You wanted SMALLER government? LESS bureaucracy . Just who is going to monitor all sexual activity? Keep records of menstrual periods? Monitor pregnant women? We do not come close to providing basic prenatal care for women who want it, and you think we will FORCE women to be monitored to prevent civil rights of the "child" they carry? I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you have a good heart and good intentions, you have no concept of the collateral results of the actions you propose.
Just step away from the politics, stick to the praying.
