ISS:When does life begin? by James & Joan Werning

   WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE BEGIN? 

   "The majority of our group could find no point in time between the
union of sperm and egg, or at least the blastocyst stage, and the birth
of the infant at which point we could say that this was not a human
life."

   (The conclusion of sixty major scientific authorities at the First
International Conference on Abortion, Washington, D.C., 10/67.)

   "... It has been necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the
idea of killing... The result has been a curious avoidance of the
scientific fact, which everyone knows, that human life begins at
concept- ion and is continuous whether intra- or extra-uterine until
death."

   (California Medicine, Vol 113, #3, Sept 1970, p.67-68).

   WHAT IS IT? 

   The unborn has been designated as "protoplasmic rubbish", "a gobbet
of meat protruding from a human womb" (Philip Wylie); "a child-to-be"
(Glanville Williams); "the fetal-placental unit" (A.I.Csapo); "gametic
materials," "fallopian and uterine cell matter" (Joseph Fletcher); "a
part of the mother" (Oliver Wendell Holmes); "a part of the mother's
body" (Thomas Szasz); "unwanted fetal tissue" (Ellen Frankfort); "the
products of pregnancy" or "the products of conception" (HEW);
"sub-human non-personhood" (F.Raymond Marks); a "child
Who-Might-Have-Been" (James Kidd); "so much garbage" (Peter Stanley);
"defective life," "the preg- nancy" (Family Planning Perspectives);
"live human material"; "a collect- ion of cells"; "the conception"
(Malcolm Potts); "potential life" (Mr. Justice Blackmun); and "the
fertilized ovum" (Sarah Weddington).

   The New York Times, which shapes it's news to conform to it's pro-
abortion policy, illustrates a double standard in it's vocabulary of
the unborn. It speaks only of "the fetus," "the unborn," "the embryo,"
and other terms to avoid any acknowledgement of human peerage in the
womb. However, when reporting on medical efforts to rescue the unborn
from peril, the Times speaks of "the endangered baby," "the baby
destined to be born," "the unborn baby," "the baby still residing in
the womb," or simply "the baby." The inference is that the child is
only a real baby when it is wanted. But if it is not a baby, what is it?

   (Rachal Weeping And Other Essays on Abortion, Andrews and McMeel,
Inc., a Universal Press Syndicate Co, Fairway, KA, 1982.)

   FOR MORE INFORMATION 

   Americans Against Abortion Box 70 Lindale, TX 75771-0070

   Christian Action Council 701 W. Broad St. Suite 405 Falls Church, VA
22046

   The Rutherford Institute Box 510 Manassas, VA 22110

   Right To Life League of So. Ca. 1616 W. 9th Street, Suite 220 Los
Angeles, CA 90015

   California pro-life legislation hotline. 1-800-992-VOTE

   James & Joan Werning 
