[The following (from the Values Reporter , Winter 98 Edition) is a letter in which Bob Larimer offers poignant reasonings in response to a hardcore "choicer" he has been debating for some time via the internet.]
What is a 'zygote,' a human?
Consider please:
An eagle has just laid an egg in her nest. Shall a representative group of people from all points along the political/religious spectrum discuss whether the contents of the egg exhibit the properties of life, whether the egg will hatch to be an elephant, egret or eagle, whether it would be morally wrong or right to steal the egg from the nest for research purposes and whether or not to end the life inside the egg?
The egg doesn't care. Doesn't even know what it is. But if allowed to grow, it will eventually result in a majestic adult eagle.
The egg does have one advantage over the human 'zygote' however. By mutual human agreement and letter of law, it is protected.
The developing human is not.
This is schizophrenia, and it is in direct conflict with that primary guarantee of human liberty eloquently phrased by Thomas Jefferson and enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.
Those who justify killing the developing human being do so for reasons which they have concocted for their own purposes. Whatever their motives and reasons, they can never conceal the reality that a human life has been extinguished each time the 'medical procedure' of abortion is carried out.
What was alive and full of potential is now dead. This is not medicine.
There are simple scientific, medical tests which can demonstrate that the tiny developing human possesses life and is indeed human.
These are not religious arguments. The claim that they are such simply provides a convenient straw man for pro-death people to flail away at.
There really is no good excuse for taking the lives of innocent little human children.
No excuse.
Best Regards,
Bob Larimer WTV
P.S. "Knowlege is power" seems a dramatic statement. But is this automatically positive? Hitler had both. So did Lenin and Stalin. They too were involved in taking the lives of certain classes of human beings, and felt they had strong reasons for doing so. With the wrong value system as a foundation, people can really suffer under the power that knowledge brings.
[Bob is co-founder (along with Sid Turbyfill) of Washington for Traditional Values Coalition. He lives in Vancouver, WA]