{"id":300789,"date":"2023-10-29T13:42:52","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T18:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=300789"},"modified":"2023-10-27T17:20:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T22:20:33","slug":"when-life-begins-not-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/when-life-begins-not-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite pro-abortion claims, the question of &#8216;when life begins&#8217; is no longer a question"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalrighttolifenews.org\/2023\/10\/pro-aborts-insist-when-human-life-begins-is-still-an-unsettled-question\/\">NRL News Today<\/a>) The more pro-lifers are victorious \u2014 see the <em>Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0decision overturning\u00a0<em>Roe <\/em>\u2014 the more pro-abortionists are intent on revisiting topics that are already long since settled.<\/p>\n<p>So we get stories from the reliable pro-abortion<em>\u00a0National Public Radio<\/em>\u00a0with the headline \u201cWhen does life begin? As state laws define it, science, politics and religion clash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sarah Varney uses a familiar tactic. Argue that since the definition of death is now (\u201cmore or less\u201d) settled, then we ask \u201cwhen exactly does human life begin? At conception, the hint of a heartbeat, a first breath, the ability to survive outside the womb with the help of the latest technology?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Notice how Varney repackages the question. For the moment skip the last nine words:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong><em>Unlike the debate over death, which delved into\u00a0exquisite medical and scientific detail, the legislative\u00a0scramble to determine when life\u2019s building blocks reach a\u00a0threshold that warrants government protection as human\u00a0professionals.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Later:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong><em>Medical professionals and bioethicists caution that both\u00a0the beginning and end of life are complicated biological\u00a0processes that are not defined by a single identifiable\u00a0moment \u2014 and are ill suited to the political arena.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, biological occurrences are not events,\u00a0they are processes,\u201d said David Magnus.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, asking doctors \u201cWhat is life?\u201d or \u201cWhat is\u00a0death?\u201d may miss the point, said Magnus: \u201cMedicine can\u00a0answer the question \u2018When does a biological organism\u00a0cease to exist?\u2019 But they can\u2019t answer the question \u2018When\u00a0does a person begin or end?\u2019 because those are\u00a0metaphysical issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S-lQOooYAs8?si=S1MsGN69YlP0_G5_\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>During the oral arguments over Dobbs, \u201cThat\u2019s a religious view, isn\u2019t it?\u201d asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She was referring to the pro-life view. The implication was probably that, because it\u2019s religious, this view shouldn\u2019t be reflected in our law, as Paul Stark of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life once observed.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the pro-life position is about justice, not faith or\u00a0dogma. Opposition to killing unborn humans is no more\u00a0inherently \u201creligious\u201d than opposition to killing teenagers.<\/p>\n<p>Such opposition is supported by empirical science, which\u00a0shows that embryos and fetuses are living members of our\u00a0species, and by the principle that all human beings have\u00a0human rights.<\/p>\n<p>Secular pro-lifers comes to the same conclusion. \u201cThe human zygote is the first developmental stage in a human life cycle,\u201d Monica Snyder of Secular Pro-life.<\/p>\n<p>In the abortion debate, people treat this statement as if it\u00a0were a belief, rather than a fact. They seem to assume the\u00a0demarcation of the zygote as a human\u2019s beginning is just\u00a0one belief of many, brought up only to support an anti-abortion agenda.<\/p>\n<p>But pro-lifers didn\u2019t invent the idea that the zygote is the\u00a0start; we\u2019re merely acknowledging that already existing\u00a0reality. And I notice that whenever biology comes up\u00a0outside of the abortion debate, science communicators\u00a0readily acknowledge this basic biological fact too.<\/p>\n<p>Varney smuggles in the question of personhood, which is a hugely important but separate issue. And she takes some shots at states whose laws she doesn\u2019t approve of:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><strong><em>\u201c[R]ed states across much of the South and portions of the\u00a0Midwest are adopting language drafted by elected\u00a0officials that is informed by conservative Christian\u00a0doctrine, often with little scientific underpinning.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Varney to the contrary notwithstanding, the case for when the life of an individual human being begin is settled.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: This article was published at NRL News today and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/stop-planned-parenthood\/?utm_campaign=sex_ed_petition&amp;utm_medium=LAN&amp;utm_source=website\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-295788\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Stop-PP-From-Sexualizing-Kids970x250-blur-700x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Stop-PP-From-Sexualizing-Kids970x250-blur-700x180.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Stop-PP-From-Sexualizing-Kids970x250-blur-300x77.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Stop-PP-From-Sexualizing-Kids970x250-blur-768x198.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Stop-PP-From-Sexualizing-Kids970x250-blur-500x129.jpg 500w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Stop-PP-From-Sexualizing-Kids970x250-blur.jpg 970w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(NRL News Today) The more pro-lifers are victorious \u2014 see the Dobbs\u00a0decision overturning\u00a0Roe \u2014 the more pro-abortionists are intent on revisiting topics that are already long since settled. So we get stories from the reliable pro-abortion\u00a0National Public Radio\u00a0with the headline \u201cWhen does life begin? As state laws define it, science, politics and religion clash.\u201d Sarah [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":322,"featured_media":172512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Despite pro-abortion claims, the question of &#039;when life begins&#039; is no longer a question<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pro-lifers didn\u2019t invent the idea that the zygote is the\u00a0start; we\u2019re merely acknowledging that already existing\u00a0reality.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/when-life-begins-not-question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Despite pro-abortion claims, the question of &#039;when life begins&#039; is no longer a question\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pro-lifers didn\u2019t invent the idea that the zygote is the\u00a0start; we\u2019re merely acknowledging that already existing\u00a0reality.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/when-life-begins-not-question\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-29T18:42:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-27T22:20:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/fertilized-egg-zygote-reproduction-700x350.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Andrusko\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Andrusko\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/when-life-begins-not-question\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/when-life-begins-not-question\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dave Andrusko\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/641fa4c1bbcfbccccc12b1b8940518a3\"},\"headline\":\"Despite pro-abortion claims, the question of &#8216;when life begins&#8217; 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