Dakota Beacon

At the time of her birth my niece McKenzie was the most premature (16 ounces) child to be born and survive in St. Louis County, Missouri. She was considered a miracle. Today, at 23 years she is by all accounts “a live wire”. My fondest memory of her was from the family reunion when she was 6 years old. She just wanted to crawl all over me, to be held and cuddled. Such an affectionate kid, a beautiful spirit, so easy to love, a miraculous gift from God. But what if she had never been?

Holding McKenzie I realized that she had a beautiful spirit. The realization of the beauty of her spirit, that spark of human kind got me to wondering about the moment that she changed from a genetically unique collection of cells into a human having a spirit. Did her spirit develop after her premature birth during the time that she would have spent in the womb? Did her spirit come into being exactly 9 months after her conception? When is that exact moment when a collection of cells becomes a human?

Do we know for sure when it is that an unborn child can feel pain? NO, we do not. Do we know for sure when they have awareness of themselves? NO we do not. Every country in Europe outlaws infanticide based on gestational age unless the killing of the unborn is illegal outright:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6235557.stm

In Canada killing a child that is over 24 gestational weeks of age is illegal. In Canada McKenzie, obviously human, could have had her humanity decided by her mother and she could have been destroyed. Obviously she was very, very, very much a human being at that point in her life. In the United States she could have been destroyed up until minutes before her birth even if she had not been born premature and gone the full 39 week period of gestation.

Infanticide is barbarism. It is barbarism no matter when in the life cycle that it is done.

It seems that on a strictly scientific basis that supporting the killing of the unborn, the taking of innocent life, for whatever reason, is evidence of one of two things. Either someone who supports barbarity of this nature is either ignorant….or having knowledge of the child’s humanity, wicked.

Can it be otherwise?

If we do not know when an unborn child feels pain, is aware of anything, or when they transition from a "product of conception" to a human, do we not have an interest as a society to protect the most innocent and helpless among us?