Origin of Human Life

Everyone watching the George Floyd trial this morning (April 8, 2021) heard a witness testify that the DNA of a person is collected because it is distinct from a person's parents and even his or her siblings. This statement dispels the notion that, because a mother has a right of privacy over her body, a mother has the sole right to choose to destroy another human life that is not her own. Rather than plan another "March for Life" on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, planning a one-day conference on the scientific origin of human life would generate publicity at a prime time when COVID-19, climate change and a landing on Mars shine a focus on science. Nearly a half century has passed since Justice Blackmun wrote in Roe v. Wade: We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer. When the highest court in the land could not speculate on the origin of human life, recognizing a woman's right to choose an abortion seemed reasonable. However, what research has discovered about DNA in the first human cell conceived no longer justifies ignoring the State's obligation to protect human life, supporting abortion with taxpayer funds and giving a mother the sole right to choose to destroy another human life unless, in self defense, this life presents a physical or mental risk to her own. Clearly, a new understanding of abortion has ramifications, many inconvenient, that will lead to additional conferences, legislation and legal decisions.