This week the United States Supreme Court ruled that the 1973 decision in the case of Roe v Wade was in error and has been overturned. I was a 30-year-old student of the Constitution at the time that original ruling was handed down. I could not for the life of me find where the justices found a woman’s right to kill her unborn baby anywhere in the Constitution, so I am glad that overreach by the court has finally been recognized and corrected. I will not use this blog for political debate, but this decision throws a bright light on the value of human life at every stage of development, which is a valid topic for this blog.
In 1973, biologists could not agree on when human life began. There was no ultrasound to monitor the development within the womb. The human genome had not been indexed. A recent poll of biologists worldwide showed 97% agreeing that human life begins at conception because the first living cell in the fertilized egg contains the full DNA profile of that life and at that point growth begins. Biologists now know that there is a separate heartbeat at ten weeks and a complete nervous system at 20 weeks so any abortion after that point would cause excruciating pain to the boy or girl and not the mother.
God is the creator of all life, including humans. The Psalmist recognized that when he wrote, “You made all of the delicate, inner parts of my body, and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. You watched me while I was being formed in utter seclusion.” (Psalms 139:13-16)
In the last forty-nine years I have witnessed a devaluing of human life at every stage of life, not just the beginning. Life has been devalued at the end, when the person is no longer a “productive member of society”. At my advanced age (79), I have discovered my life becomes even more valuable by the minute, hour or day. I thank God for every second. People of all ages are being gunned down in the city streets, schools and even in stores. The problem isn’t the weapons being used. I graduated from a relatively small high school in Missouri. There were always more than a few vehicles in the parking lot every day with guns on gun racks, but no one was ever harmed. We had respect for human life and a moral foundation. The problem today is that those killers have no concept of the value of human life, even their own.
Becoming a Christian isn’t just about going to heaven when we leave this life; it is about appreciating the value of human life at every stage and investing our own precious lifetime in God’s work and in the needs and wellbeing of others around us. It is about giving our younger generations a spiritual and moral foundation that values life – others’ and their own. Life can get complicated sometimes – we are even born with a string attached; but life as a child of God will always be worth the effort in this life and for eternity.