Follow the Science

        

        We have been told repeatedly to "follow the science," usually in connection to COVID-19 

immunization. That is good advice and my wife and I are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and other 

viruses.

        To be fully consistent, there is another situation where I would hope that everyone would consider

following the science. 

        The human female produces ova (eggs) which her body recognizes as "me." Except in rare cases of

 autoimmune disease, the woman's body leaves the ovaries and the eggs alone. In autoimmune

oophoritis, the body's immune system attacks the ovaries causing inflammation, severe damage, and

fibrosis.

        Normally, when a sperm wins the frantic race to the egg, the egg immediately allows the 

spermatozoan to enter and mix its DNA with the DNA of the egg.  The mixture of DNA is 50% "me"

and 50% "not me."

        If the body is functioning properly it does not like "not me" and makes moves to get rid of not me.

It attacks "not me" to protect itself from viruses, bacteria, and other organisms like yeast or protozoa.

This is the reason transplant patients have to take anti-rejection drugs. The transplanted tissues are "not

me."

        To protect itself, the fertilized egg starts making masking proteins to tell the body "there's nothing

 to see here." The masking proteins hide the "not me." The body only sees the "me."

        Once the embryo implants and begins to increase in size, it becomes too "not me" to ignore. That's

where the placenta takes over. It has many functions but one function is to release hormones and other

factors to prevent rejection of the fetus. Remember that the fetus is "not me." So what you have is

mother ("me") and fetus ("not me.") 

        This is the reason why there is so much controversy over when the fetus becomes a separate,

 individual human.

 

Why Life Begins at Conception, Part 2

(The posts in this series may not occur on consecutive days but they will make the most sense to you if they are read in consecutive order.)

Todd Akin, a United States Representative from the State of Missouri roiled the waters when he said that women who are victims of what he called "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant.  He seems to have been referring to forcible rape.  Regardless of what he meant, his comment has absolutely no basis in fact and reignited the contentious debate over rape and abortion.

On the Cable News Network program, Piers Morgan Tonight, two women debated the two extreme sides of the issues.

Gloria Allred, a civil rights and anti-discrimination attorney, was raped at gunpoint and became pregnant.  She chose to terminate her pregnancy and became a pro-choice advocate.  People who are pro-choice support a woman’s right to obtain an abortion. 

Rebecca Kiessling, a pro-life supporter, was born as a result of a forcible rape at knife-point.  People who are pro-life are opposed to most or all abortions.  Kiessling is an outspoken Christian.  Her testimony is here.  A text version:

http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/Rebecca_Kiessling072809.aspx

Allred and Kiessling engaged in a “spirited’ debate on the subject.  Here is the transcript and a video of the debate.  The emotions are quite raw on both sides.

Next post in this series: A scientific explanation of what happens at conception.

ChristianShirts.net

http://www.christianshirts.net/  is a site devoted to one thing: selling tee shirts with Christian messages. The site is intensely pro-life and religiously conservative.  Many of the tee shirts are humorous and/or thought provoking; many are based on witty puns which probably would have meaning only in English.  Some may be offended by the cartoon character, Umbert the Unborn, a talking fetus inside a womb.  (I am not.) The site's overt political conservatism may bother some viewers as it seems to equate Christianity with one particular political viewpoint.

For full disclosure: I am unapologetically pro-life, evangelical, proudly trinitarian, and politically centrist.  I do not believe that any political organization speaks for God.  We are Americans, Russians, Mexicans, Latvians, Senegalese, Israelis, Jordanians. ... We should be proud of our nationalities and be responsible citizens, participating, where appropriate, in our nation's political discussions, but, our first allegiance must be to the Kingdom of God.

The abortion debate is not only based on religious beliefs

     A friend and I were talking  and somehow got onto the subject of abortion.  When I expressed my opposition to the practice he told me he was surprised at me.    He said, "You're so well read and seem to be intelligent.  How can you be anti-choice?"

     I pointed out to him that I am not anti-choice, I'm pro-life.  He started rolling out all the pro-abortion arguments.  And, he made the charge that only fundamentalist Christians and Roman Catholics oppose abortion; so, declaring that it was not necessary to invoke religion at all in the debate, I asked him a question.

     "If you take tissue from an aborted fetus and from the biological mother and submit the samples separately for DNA analysis and comparison, what will be the result?  ... The DNA analysis will demonstrate that the tissues came from two separate and totally distinct individuals.  Genetic science states that the fetus, from the moment of conception, is a separate life, not merely a patch of tissue in the mother's body."

     My friend admitted that this was true but the implications of that admission flew right over his head.  He resorted to the hypothetical game, "If your daughter were ... "

     Many people of both liberal and conservative orientations stake a claim on a particular issue on ideology and become almost automatons, chanting the established mantra over and over.  They challenge any deviation from their particular orthodoxy.  Real argument, in the classical sense, is drowned out; they merely become louder with their chanting.  If you don't agree with them you must be an uneducated boob, hopelessly confused, or, worst of all, a bigot.

     It would be a positive step if we could all learn to argue with respect.  At the end of our argument my friend and I looked at one another and laughed.  We're still friends.