Pope John Paul II said our society has embraced a “culture of death.”
With abortion, Americans have lost respect for life.
Last week an American company announced it had cloned a human embryo.
This should not surprise anyone, given the fact that overall we do not value human life. Granted, embryos consist of only a few cells, so they may not seem like much. However, as any biology book will tell you, life begins at conception. It is convenient to say it begins whenever we want it to begin, but this is not a scientific way of looking at things. When the world watched Dolly, the cloned sheep, it did not learn about the hundreds of deformed Dollies that preceded her. Cloned “experiments” died in pain shortly after being born, or were put down. It is clear some scientists are more concerned with discovery than with moral or ethical implications.
I’ve noticed that whenever you ask a pro-choice person when life begins, they usually do not have an answer. Some will say it begins when a child is born. With this reasoning they can defend partial birth abortion, which is literally only inches away from infanticide.
The National Organization of Women was understandably nervous when a bill appeared before Congress that would have given penalties to people who intentionally kill other people’s unborn children. It was depressing to listen to the then-president of NOW Patricia Ireland attempt to reason out her position. She said she agreed that people who wanted their unborn children should be able to sue those that inflict harm or cause the death of the baby. However, as you know, Ireland believes in abortion.
I guess this means that if the baby is unwanted, it is not human life. Does this make sense? NOW was in an uncomfortable spot, because logic was introduced to the debate. They knew they wanted to protect women who wanted their unborn children, but they also did not want to contradict their support for killing unborn life.
No child should suffer because of its parents’ mistake. Thousands wait for the chance to adopt “unwanted” children. While adoption is not easy, it is an honorable choice.
I’m pro-life, but you can call me anti-abortion. You might notice the pro-choice crowd does not want the label “pro-abortion.” The word abortion is so offensive to people that they cover the argument with the euphemism, “choice.” If people are uncomfortable using the a-word, what does that say about the procedure they condone?
We are arrogant to think we should control when life begins and ends. Roe v. Wade sounded the beginning of our culture of death.
It is about time we take a step back and look at the larger picture. Polls show roughly half the United States is opposed to abortion. Too many pro-life people waste their votes on pro-abortion candidates.
As scientists continue to interfere with life, it is even more important that we vote accordingly. We need to move from apathy, and realize that defending human life is paramount over government programs and party politics. If we fail to see that, the weakest among us will pay the price.
Anna Gould is a UW student.
