I find this story very odd. A guy is being charged with murder for causing a miscarriage. Doesn't that go against more or less all of our currently accepted understanding of the status of the unborn?
[Note: I'm personally all for considering the unborn as living human beings...I'm just saying this story seems remarkable given how our justice system does not take the same view.]
Monday, October 26, 2009
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Makes sense to me David. Murder is murder, no matter how you spell it.
I think David's point is "Why is that murder, but abortion isn't?" Apparently, it's OK when the mother chooses to take the life of her child, but no one else better!
On a side note, someone who kills a pregnant woman is often charged with double murder. Case in point is Scott Peterson, who was found guilty in 2004 of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn child. She was eight months pregnant.
Yep, that was my point.
[Note, I recently turned comment moderation on, sorry for throwing you a curve ball, Bev. ;)]
Hello David,
I could be wrong, but I am under the impression that if a woman chooses to keep her baby, then if someone caused the baby to die, it would be called murder. But if she chooses to terminate her pregnancy, then it is a right. Brutally strange line of reasoning, but then what does one expect from a world gone mad.
I just found your website. I'll be looking in from time to time.
Thank you.
Steve
Hi Stephen,
I think you have the right of it on all counts!
And welcome to the blog!
David,
the crux of the matter is when does life begin?
Genesis says Adam did not exist until breath entered his nostrils.
That's when he became "a living being". That's the closest Biblical answer we can find.
In the OT if a man struck a woman causing her to miscarry he had to pay a fine. It was not a capital case as the child was not considered alive until breath came into it's nostrils.
Science says the heart begins to beat after 18 days but do we follow science or scripture?
I've heard Preachers say that the moment the sperm reaches the egg life begins. But of course the sperm is already alive when it enters the woman so has life begun prior to conception. So who decides when life begins, humans or scripture?
I do not like what a woman suffers when she has an abortion but if I go by Genesis I cannot call her a murderer. She is going through enough trauma without Christians kicking her when she is down and calling her a murderer when the scriptures do not.
Sweet Dreams,
You are correct in balking at calling mothers who undergo abortions "murderers." That term is incendiary, does not lead to constructive discussion, and (most of all) is simply inaccurate.
People who use that term are focusing on the innocence of the victim, and channeling the (understandable) anger at the death of the vulnerable and innocent into a charged word.
But the fact of the matter is that "murder" is not defined in terms of the innocence or vulnerability of the victim. The term refers to the killing of another with malice. Whatever our thoughts are about the subject, it would be unfair [and totally incorrect] to claim that those who abort the unborn generally do so with malice toward the fetus.
[writing from Hungary]
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