By Allen R. Gray
NDG COntributing Writer
It is going to take an astute Republican to decipher this intricate paradox: Does humankind stand in opposition to the will of God when an abortion is performed? Or do we oppose God’s will by creating life out of mankind’s own genius?
To the delight of conservative Christian legal advocacy groups, the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was successful in overturning Roe v. Wade. The Dobbs decision put the power to decide if abortion is legal or illegal back into the hands of the state, and back into the control of governors who are of the mind of Texas’ governor. So now it goes down to how an ultra-conservative–even religiously zealous—politician might will his personally-political interpretation of Biblical truth into existence.
By way of military might, it seems that pious touting tyrannical rulers have always been able to impose their religious beliefs onto indigenous people, this included not only a belief in God but also of birth rights, the right to life and the right merely to pursue one’s life as one so decides. This imposition of the unified belief of birth right issues has been a matter of public and criminal concern that reaches as far back as Victorian times.
When Europeans began to colonize southern Africa, they brought a lot of things with them. Surely slavery was one of those items, but another thing they brought has implications for our laws and political decisions even to this day. It was the Christian European’s religious beliefs and their might to exact laws based on their autarchic view of those Christians beliefs.
Back then, the Christian European’s view of the point of inception of life was not a matter weeks or months. For them life began with sperm. They believed that it was God’s almighty will that sex be for procreative purposes ONLY! Therefore, if an unknowing African were found to have fully pleasured himself, he would have been found guilty of an “unnatural offense,” or “carnal knowledge against the order of nature,” or even “gross indecency.” The sentence for that blasphemous offence was death.
One can only imagine what laws and consequences those Christian colonizers would have promulgated if they had to answer the question of in vitro fertilization (IVF).
In vitro fertilization is the furthest thing from procreative sex as one could imagine.
In vitro fertilization is a process that begins with the removal of eggs from the woman and the collection of sperm from a male partner or donor. The egg and sperm are then united to allow them to fertilize; or your doctor might conduct a process known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). In three to five days after fertilization, the doctor will use a catheter to place the embryos into the uterus.
The rancorous and sometimes brutal debate about when human life begins is an enigma that has waged on for many decades. Thankfully the Supreme Court of Alabama was able to solve this morally complex conundrum. The Court determined that human life begins—not in the Garden of Eden nor in a woman’s womb, nor with the physical expression of love as some have contended—but, rather, in a petri dish that sits alone in a cold dark laboratory. Or so it was for three otherwise unknown Alabama couples who were seeking to expand their families.
The three couples go to an Alabama fertility clinic for IVF treatment. All three became pregnant and gave birth to what Trump calls “beautiful babies.” As a backup plan, additional embryos are created in case the first ones fail, or the embryos are cryogenically frozen in case the parents want to return to have more kids in the future. This is where the case develops.
One day in December 2020, a patient of the hospital goes into the cryo-preservation unit, opens a cryogenic tank, and sticks his hand into the sub-freezing temperatures. The patient tried to lift some of the embryos, burnt his hand and dropped the embryos belonging to the three couples. The embryos (or humans depending on how you see it) were destroyed them.
Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, which dates back to 1872, is an avenue that allows a personal representative to sue for punitive damages for the death of a person caused by a wrongful act, omission, or negligence. The act only applies if the person who died could have sued under those same conditions had they not died. This archaic law was used to sue the IVF clinic.
The ultimate decision in this matter rested in the hands of the Supreme Court of Alabama. The legal/moral question the Court was faced with was: are embryos human and, therefore, subjected to the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act? The Court reversed the decision of a lower court and said yes, embryos are human.
In its decision the court determined that the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act does apply “to all unborn children without limitation. And that includes unborn children who are not located in utero at the time they are killed.” So, the Alabama Supreme Court granted the embryos personhood and allowed the couples to sue.
In making that determination, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker used several Biblical references to reach his definition of the “sanctity of life,” and to derive this theologically based view: God made man in His image; therefore each person has immeasurable value in God’s eyes; and, you cannot take a human life without incurring the wrath of God, who considers the destruction a personal affront to Himself.
If nothing else the Christian colonizers had conviction behind what they believed.
Republicans cannot seem to make up their god-fearing minds about when life comes into existence.
A CNN reporter asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott if there was cause for Texas couples who were undergoing IVF to worry about their frozen embryos and Abbott began tap dancing (figuratively speaking).
“Well so you raise fine questions that are complex, that I simply do not know the answer to. Let me give you a couple examples and that is, uh, I have no idea mathematically the number of frozen embryos,” Abbott shuffled. “Is it one, 10, 100, 1,000? Things like that matter…” Abbott goes on to say since the issue is “complex” that he is not sure if everybody has thought about the potential problems or the probable answers.
Mankind’s ability to manipulate life—and the laws that regulate life—has evolved in ways that are unimaginable. We are now able to select a particular sperm and oocytes, fertilize and culture embryos, select which embryo will be transferred into a woman’s uterus—and save the surplus embryos and gametes for later use. It is something akin to some weird science experiment.
In so doing, are we, in fact, circumventing the will of God by ourselves playing creator?
For the people who can afford it, having a child is like ordering a tailormade suit or a sandwich from Burger King. The power to do this kind of human manipulation is godlike.
Next, we will be manufacturing humans from rib bones (Genesis 2:22-23).
Alphonse Frankenstein issued a warning to his son Victor when the elder discovered his son was going down a dark path by indulging in the writings of German theologian Cornelius Agrippa, who wrote primarily about occult sciences. “Ah? Cornelius Agrippa? My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this, it is sad trash.”
Victor refused to heed his father’s warning.
The story of Frankenstein did not end well…
