Words Have Meaning

Paganplace,
Snowflakes aren't life and embryo's aren't mass produced in the clouds by the trillions. That's a pretty loose connection.

You obviously don't believe embryo's are human life but you skirt the subject of what is life. This is the primary question. Do you not care? Do you have an answer?

"If, as medical science has now established, life begins at conception, how can he as a person of faith countenance the taking of life, even in its earliest stages?"

No, Chuck, medical science has *not* now established this.

Sperm and eggs are life when they're separate as well, they're life when they're the Big Mac you ate to produce them, they're life at all points in between.

Sure, each fertilized egg is as unique as a snowflake, that doesn't really affect how we shovel, though. I think of this particular lifetime and sometimes wish I'd caught the *next* snowflake, if you know what I mean. :)

Frankly, I've got all kinds of interesting chronic conditions cause of pills fed to people who were too terrified of miscarriage to consider the consequences. 'Saving lives,' I'm sure some would have called it.

My *soul* didn't begin there. There's no necessity to believe that a successful pregnancy begins a soul, then just ignore the fact that half of naturally-fertilized ova don't implant, either.

What, did 'God' create 'souls' there, only to 'kill' them?

What is it you imagine happens, here?

It's like with emergency contraception: you don't actually believe that life begins at conception, from the policies you demand, you believe life begins at a *sex act* that *later, retroactively* proved to result in conception and pregnancy. You just *call* that sex act conception. Then try to apply that old idea to IVF surplus material ...or whatever you feel like.

Hel, you act like not being *straight* (even if you're actually infertile) is somehow thwarting your God's will.

No, medical science has shown things are more complicated than you make them out to be.

Complicated? Well, actually, I should say, complicated for *you.*

The rest of us call it life.

I believe too that human life begins at conception. The science behind is actually quite strong. I think there are a few people that posted here are ignoring that.

We know DNA is what ultimately makes us human. The information in our DNA makes us the human that we are physically. Science has shown us that this DNA is created at conception. In fact, you are the same person today as you were at conception, as far as DNA is concerned. This DNA has all the characteristics embedded as information that make you different. That combination will never be duplicated again.

This is pretty convincing science that we should respect life from conception.

By the way, egg and sperm are obviously not life. They only contain half of the DNA required to make life and there is no way it will grow to life. They only make life when they are combined.

So, Ken16, do you hold funerals when these new genetically distinct organisms spontaneously abort after a few days or weeks?

If not, why not?

And will you outlaw IVF? If not, why not?

Sperm cells and egg cells are alive and are human, but are genetically identified with the parent. At conception, a new organism is formed when the genetic information from the gametes merge to form a living human being that is genetically distinct from either parent. That is the incontrovertible scientific fact that Obama ignores in his ideologically driven decision.

It is nonsensical to assert that the embryo is not a human being. What is it then? A potato? A martian? Of course an embryo is developmentally different from a new born infant. So is that infant from a teenager or an a mature adult. They are all still living human beings if the words we use mean anything at all.

Chuck says "If, as medical science has now established, life begins at conception..." Chuck is a liar. This just goes to show the damage that religion does to morality. Truth is sacrificed at the altar of superstition.

Life begins at conception?
No. It "begins" even before conception. Sperm cells are alive. Egg cells are alive.
But I don't see Chuck getting all weepy over wet dreams and periods.
Sperm and egg are not human beings? True of course. But then neither are microscopic clumps of cells that result when sperm and egg come together.

And tell us all Chuck...why did your "loving" god create all of these diseases in the first place? If he hadn't, we mortals wouldn't need to try so hard to find cures for them.

Chuck Colson states "medical science has now established ..that ..life begins at conception." Assuming that this is true (and I am not at all certain that it is), the totally open question (except to the Georgia legislators) is this: At what point in the prebirth period does an embryo actually become a human? Although it may be at conception a living thing and has the potential to become a human being, it is at conception and for some time thereafter something very different from the baby it might become. I agree with the Georgia legislative minority...at conception the embryo is NOT a human being.