you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:13-16
At some point in the conception and
growth process, life begins.
Some say it occurs when sperm and egg
meet. Others say when the heart begins to beat. Others say when the baby
emerges from the womb.
It’s a delicate subject matter, since
the definition of murder is when someone takes another person’s life and everyone
agrees murder is a sin.
To help us answer this question, we need
to ask ourselves is life a physical or spiritual matter?
If it’s physical, then life has to do
with beating hearts and brain waves. Proponents of this say that when our heart
and our brain stop functioning, life ceases to be. Is that true? Some brain activity occurs after the heart
stops breathing. So is it both or just
one?
Our understanding of the beginning of
physical life has changed with advanced technology. We are able to see the
heart beating at a much earlier time than previously thought. Now at around a
month of development we can detect such activity. Many do not know they are
pregnant until a month or two after conception.
They have to make the decision to abort when a heart is clearly
detectable.
So for others, the argument switches to
brain activity, saying life begins when the brain begins to think. When does that happen? An ultrasound can’t pick that up. Even after they are born, infants don’t
really “think,” they react by instinct.
Most don’t have a conscious memory of their childhood back much further
than two years old. So can we kill a
child at the age of two years old since they don’t “think”?
Does
“thinking” mean the ability to reason?
Again, many five year olds can’t reason.
Can we kill them?
On a spiritual side, proponents say life
comes from God, when He breathes life into a womb and the individual has a
spirit. We have no technology to measure such a thing. Only faith and Psalm
139.
According to this verse, God has
determined the life of a person by marking out all their days and fashioning
them together in the mother’s womb.
Their “life” begins when God schedules it and plans it.
Even the “mistakes” God has a plan for.
A spiritual person says life continues
after death without the body. So for
them life is not a physical state, but a spiritual one.
The above quoted verse in Psalms cites
God’s part in creating a life in a woman’s womb at the moment of conception. If God is involved, creating one’s
personality, look and future, than that creation has value and purpose.
Abortion sadly stops that progress and
physically ends the life.
Some where in this debate a line needs
to be drawn as the definition of “life.” The safest place is at conception
since we cannot determine a true physical moment of when life begins.
That means that abortion kills a life
and murder would be classified as a sin.