Not Quite Human, Part V

We have spent the last several weeks looking at what happens when a society declares some of its members "sub-human" or "non-human", as in the case in Nazi Germany and the Jews in World War II.   A mood of anti-Semitism that had been present for many generations was transformed into a new truth over the course of only a few generations by continuous teaching and preaching-- that Jews were not human.  This led to the slaughter of over six million people that were previously acknowledged by the Germans to be human and certainly following the Holocaust are clearly known to be human today.  The horrible abuse inflicted on the Jews will never be forgotten, even by the Germans, where denying the reality of the Holocaust today is actually a criminal offense, punishable by imprisonment for three months to five years.

We would think that something as simple as the definition of a human being would be straightforward and not open to change or debate.  Yet we saw an entire country change the meaning of human being for several decades and then change it back.  Something so simple as a change in definition lead to the deaths of millions.  Today, we have over a million abortions performed in the United States, in part because the fetus is not defined as a human being. 

Most people would agree with the following premise: 

                 An innocent human being must not be killed

The qualifier "innocent" is used here because the state has the authority to take the life of someone who is found guilty of a capital crime.  Furthermore, if it is established that the fetus is human, it clearly is innocent.  Therefore, for the sake of simplicity, we will leave out the term "innocent."

All arguments against abortion must destroy both halves of this premise, which can be restated as:

                   If it is a human being, it must not be killed.

Either half of this premise can be attacked.  You can argue that the fetus is not a human being. Or, you can argue that it is acceptable to kill human beings.  In fact, both sides of this premise are regularly assaulted by its pro-abortion opponents.  Today, we will look at the attacks on the fetus as a human being; next week we will study the other half of the premise.

For many decades now, it has been argued that the fetus is not a human being.  In fact, this was one of the foundational definitional issues in the Roe v. Wade decision made by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1973.  In fact, the decision has within it what is known as the "collapse clause", which states, "If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course collapses, for the fetus' right to life would be guaranteed specifically by the (Fourteenth) Amendment."  It was the interpretation of those Justices that voted in favor of the decision that the fetus was not a person or human being.  In fact, they noted that "...the law has been reluctant to endorse any theory that life, as we recognize it, begins before live birth..." (emphasis mine).

If you are secure in your knowledge that a portion of a premise is false, there is no need to attack the other portion.  In fact, to do so makes it appear that you may not really be so certain about your position.  If it is absolutely true that the fetus is not a person, then there is no need to make any attacks on the portion of the premise that states that "it must not be killed."  In other words, if a fetus is truly not a person, then there should be no issue whatsoever in destroying it.  You do not need to make any arguments about women having a right to choice, women having the right to control their own bodies, or women having the right to "reproductive rights."  Likewise, if it is acceptable to kill human beings, based on women's choice, control, or reproductive rights, then there is no need to spend so much effort claiming that the fetus is not human. 

The primary problem faced by the pro-abortion crowd today is that the fetus is increasingly being recognized as a human being.  Advancing medical science has demonstrated several things in this regard.  Over and over again it is shown that the fetus has a functioning heart within six weeks of conception, brain waves can be detected at eight weeks, fetal breathing movements at ten weeks, and body movement begins at twelve weeks.  It is difficult to claim that this is not human life. 

For the vast majority of people, their death, when they cease to be a living human being, will be determined when their heart stops beating.  For a few who are kept alive by life support devices, their death will be determined by when their brain waves cease, or "brain death."  As a cardiac surgeon, I am very well acquainted with the beating and still heart and occasionally have been involved in brain death cases, usually where issues of organ donation for transplantation were involved.  If it is accepted that cardiac standstill or brain death denotes the death of a human, it would stand to reason that evidence of a heartbeat or brain waves indicates that human life is present.

The second area where advancing medical science has changed the whole notion of life has to do with the changing notion of viability.  Premature infants less than twenty-two weeks gestational age are now surviving.  The law may not recognize life until after live birth, but these small infants, that could fit into the palm of your hand, are clearly not recognizing the law. The Supreme Court, in 1973, thought viability was established at twenty-eight weeks, a difference of a month-and-a-half from current viability.  You cannot incorporate the concept of viability into the definition of a human being when you do not know when that viability occurs.

When does this human life begin?  The notion of a "trimester" is a man-made creation; we arbitrarily take the 39 weeks of gestation and divide it into 13-week thirds.  The developing fetus does not recognize this systematic nomenclature.  From the time of conception until the baby takes its first breath and cries, there is a seamless and undivided progress from embryo to fetus to child.  There is no point where you can say that this is not a human life today and then say it is a human life the next day.

We have been looking at the development of the fetus in a forwards direction; let us now do so in a reverse manner.  To do so will involve some gruesome and explicit terms, but this is what has been done and is being done in this country.  Most people would agree that to murder an infant is illegal, immoral, and unacceptable.  However, the United States had to actually pass a law, in 2002, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, to give legal protection to live babies that had survived abortions. 

Yet up until 2003, it was legal to perform partial birth abortions, medically known as "intact dilation and extraction."  In that procedure, an infant yet to be born was turned around in its mother's womb until the feet were grasped and the infant is pulled part of the way out of the vaginal canal.  The infant is extracted until only the head remains inside.  At that point the base of the skull is punctured and the brains are suctioned out, killing the infant and allowing the skull to collapse.  The dead child is now delivered.  The key component here was the abortion doctor's thumb, which held the skull inside the vaginal canal while it was punctured and suctioned.  If his thumb slipped, the head would be delivered and he would now have a live baby in his hands.  The six inches of the vaginal canal, the distance the head would travel, changed the definition of the child from unborn fetus, which seemingly was not yet human and had no rights, to that of live infant, with all the rights of any human.  Today, although partial birth abortions are illegal, late term abortions are performed up until 35 weeks of gestation.

What the fetus doesn't know can kill it.  The twenty one week old fetus doesn't know that if he can hang in there just one more week he might be viable and therefore human in the eyes of some.  The late term fetus undergoing a partial birth abortion, feeling the cool air on his body, arms and legs, didn't know that while his head was warm and still inside his mother that his skull was about to be punctured because he wasn't quite human yet. 

The Bible does not talk about "viability" and "trimesters." Psalm 139:13 says, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  Even further, in Jeremiah 1:5, we are told that God said, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you."  God knew us as people, as humans, from the very moment we were conceived.  He doesn't say that He only knew us after we became viable or exited the birth canal.  Everything that makes us human, every gene and chromosome, is present from the moment of conception. 

However, being a human may not be enough.  There are many who do not believe human life is sacred.  As we began this series, we looked at Genesis 9:5-6, "Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning, from the hand of every beast I will require it and from the hand of man.  From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man.  Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man."  Man's life is special and belongs to God alone.  Man plays God when he decides who gets to be human and when, and he plays God when he decides which life should be ended and when.  The latter we will look at next week.

By defining Jews as not quite human, Germany was able to justify killing six million of them.  By defining the fetus as not quite human, America has been able to justify killing over fifty million babies since 1973.   Just as the Jews reclaimed their humanity from their horrible suffering, our unborn children may yet one day reclaim their humanity after losing millions of their unborn brothers and sisters.