The Wake

There is only one issue worth talking about when debating abortion, and that is whether or not when an abortion is killing a human being. That’s it. There are only two answers, either yes or no. If yes, then abortions should be made illegal. If no, then abort away. Sure, there are plenty of other strong arguments against abortion. Abortion clinics are strategically located near poor Black areas and have been used to control the Black population. In fact, there are about 30 million Blacks in America right now; there have been 40 million abortions since Roe v. Wade, of those 10 million [25%] have been Black abortions. One in four abortions have been African Americans, yet they make up only 10% of the population.

As disgusting as those numbers are, they are not in and of themselves important in the abortion debate. The fact that the Democrats have been supporting a wholesale genocide of the Black race is just a fact the voters need to deal with come November 2004. Not even the fact that 98% of all abortions are a matter of convenience is important to this debate. No sir, none of that has anything to do with the abortion debate.

When life begins is important. And for pro-lifers (or my preferred ‘anti-baby killers’) and pro-choicers alike there are precious few exact points to pin as life’s beginning. There are four by my count. The first point (the preferred of the genocidal Dems) is birth. The second point, when the fetus can feel pain (About 20 weeks). The third is when brain waves are measurable (about 10 weeks). Finally, the fourth is at conception.

The easiest point to discuss is birth. The question begs itself, how different is the baby at birth from the fetus a few days earlier? The answer is not very. Considering that medical technology is allowing us to save premature babies, allowing them to live, it’s impossible to argue that a child should be aborted at 8 months when that same baby could be delivered through a caesarean section and live a full life. This lends credence to the argument that birth is a bad measure of a human being, considering its fluid nature.

Difficulty will soon ensue us, and the danger of the Sorites Paradox needs to be avoided. Complexities aside, the second measure of humanity would be the ability to feel pain. Certainly, it should be wrong to kill any human being who can feel pain. The question is, does feeling pain prerequisite humanity? I don’t believe that my ability to feel pain defines me as a person, and there are some people whom can’t feel physical pain. Feeling pain does not define anyone as human, it’s a product of being human.

This leaves the most attractive point to discuss. I’ve heard some tell me that we should define life the negative we define death. We know when someone has died when their brain waves are no more. The brain organ now no longer serves as a vessel for animation at death. Reverse that, and you have when animation starts. Ten weeks into pregnancy. At ten weeks a fetus inside the mother has measurable brain waves. The logic is nearly infallible. For pro-lifers, this is a very attractive compromise spot since this allows day after drugs as safeguards women can have to unwanted pregnancy. However, there is still the question then, as to what exactly that life was before it was “animated.”

Unlike in death, when there is no chance that we can turn a corpse back into a living, animated person, the embryo of a young human in the womb will turn into a living, animated person. That is the final matter. At conception, that cell, with all the unique genetic information that makes up the self, will become a person. There is no getting around the fact there is a continuous temporal stream of identity that takes me from what I am now to what I was at conception. That identity is of course my genetic makeup, different from my parents, and my self contained biological processes that keep me alive. Both of those elements were there at my conception. Which mean the point at which life begins is at conception.

There is no excuse for the wholesale murder of 40 million individuals since abortion became legal some thirty years ago. Anyone in America today who is not older than thirty had an unprotected pregnancy. One in four of us under the age of thirty was killed in an abortion. Life snuffed out before the light of day could be seen. I now have good reason not to trust anyone over thirty; their prenatal existence was legally protected. The fact that young people believe now in “choice” is a product of the successful propaganda campaign of the left. Life begins at conception, murder does too.