Following the Science on the Issue of Fetal Personhood

    

 This is in response to Wesley Smith’s National Review post, “Medical Journal Screed

Decries All Fetal Personhood Laws,” 18 October 2025.

When does a developing fetus becomes “human?”  Does human life begin at conception

or sometime later in the pregnancy? When, later in the pregnancy? What if you are wrong

about your dating by even a few days? Could you mistakenly be ending a human life because it

does not meet your assigned definitions? Does the developing fetus have legal rights as a

person or are they/is it not yet human? Is it not obvious that an ectopic pregnancy is a

miscarriage and that it becomes a triage situation and therefore, not an abortion?

The overall conversation is seen by many as a religious question, and it is, but a rational

and scientific case can be made for opposition to abortion without any resort to religious

arguments.  Many people will not listen to anything even remotely religious, but they might

 listen if the discussion can be framed in a scientific way.

            We have often been told to "follow the science." This is a good and valid idea. In order to

remain completely uniform in thought, this advice should be consistently applied. This article

will present, in a highly simplified way, the scientific information necessary for a case against

abortion and some forms of birth control.

This is a very simplified presentation of human conception and the passage of genetic

information from the parents to the offspring. The information may seem to be complicated and

overwhelming, but at least a simplified basic understanding is necessary for a scientific critique

of the practice of abortion. That is what I will attempt to provide for you here.  It is necessary to

start at the beginning.

DNA (deoxy-ribonucleic acid) is a molecule consisting of two strands of nucleotide

bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) paired together in two long strings arranged in

 the shape of a helix.  DNA, a very complex and, at the same time, a very elegantly simple

 molecule, is present in every cell of the human body and contains, in coded form, all the

information necessary to build and maintain the entire body.

Combinations of the four bases in pairs contain the entire human genome; the genetic

code which determines a person's sex, hair color, voice, skin color, height, body type, number of

fingers and toes, fat distribution, eye color, genetic diseases, intelligence level, possible allergies,

digestion, athletic ability, blood group typing, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. The codes literally

determine everything about your physical body and genetic science clearly says that all the

information about you as a human individual is present from the moment of conception.

A very simplified explanation is this: each spermatozoan carries 23 chromosomes

containing copies of the father’s DNA and each egg cell contains 23 chromosomes containing

copies of the mother’s DNA. At fertilization, the two sets of chromosomes unite to produce the

zygote which has a total of 46 chromosomes (23 from the father and 23 from the

mother). There are, of course, abnormal situations when this process is distorted and birth

abnormalities result.

So, half of the individual’s genetic information comes from the mother and half from the

father. The chromosomal pattern in the fertilized egg is a hybrid of the coded instructions

present in each of the two source cells, made from them but individually different from each of

them; a fully separate genetic code, a totally distinct individual. To the mother’s immune

system, the fertilized egg is “Not Me,” it is a foreign body.   

The human female produces ova (eggs) which her body recognizes as "Me." Except in

rare cases of autoimmune disease, such as in immune oophoritis, the immune system leaves

the ovaries and the eggs alone. In autoimmune oophoritis, the body's immune system attacks

the ovaries as being “Not Me” and causes ovarian 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 the DNA which it carries with the DNA which is present in

 the egg.  The resultant mixture of chromosomes is "Not Me," which presents a severe problem

because, if the body’s immune system is functioning properly it does not like "Not Me" and it

begins to makes moves to get rid of the "Not Me." It attacks "Not Me" to protect itself from

viruses, bacteria, and other organisms like yeast or protozoa. This is the reason why transplant

patients must take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives. The transplanted tissues are

"Not Me" and would be killed if the body’s defenses are not properly suppressed.

To protect itself, the fertilized egg starts making proteins which tell the body, "move

on, there's nothing to see here." The proteins serve to hide the "Not Me." The body only sees

the "Me" and leaves the transplanted tissues alone.

Once the embryo implants and begins to increase in size, it rapidly becomes too "Not

Me" for the immune system to ignore, so the placenta takes over, releasing hormones, such as

progesterone, human chorionic gonadotropin, and other factors, to prevent rejection of the

fetus.

            The placenta is a temporary organ which contains both maternal and fetal tissue. Most

people recognize that the placenta nourishes the fetus, provides the fetus with oxygen, and

allows in some of the mother’s protective antibodies since the fetus’ immune system is not yet

functioning. It also allows the fetus’ waste products out into the mother’s blood system where

 they can then be properly eliminated. What people may not realize is that the placenta also

acts as a barrier and filter between the mother “Me” and the fetus “Not Me,” protecting the

“Not Me” from being killed. 

            Because of the placenta’s construction, the fetus and the mother effectively never come

into contact with one another.  Under the best of circumstances, the two bloodstreams never

mix. There are even two different types of hemoglobin at play, adult and fetal. The mother and

the fetus may also have different blood serotypes.

Remember that the fetus is "Not Me, " foreign tissue to the body of the mother. So,

what you have is, mother ("Me") and fetus ("Not Me"). Because the fetus has been effectively

disguised, the mother’s immune system, under normal situations, does not attempt to kill the

foreign material, the developing baby. 

This scientific information is one reason why there is so much controversy over when the

fetus becomes a separate, individual, and legally protected human, but this argument will not

convince everyone. The fertilized egg is clearly human tissue and is clearly genetically distinct

from tissue derived from the mother. None of this can answer the question of whether human

life legally begins at conception, at the first detectable heartbeat, or later.

Thirty-eight of the United States recognize the “unborn child” as a human and, in 2004,

United States President George W. Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act which views

unborn children as humans if they are injured or killed during the commission of specific federal

crimes such as terrorism. The United States courts have declared that these laws do not apply

to legal abortions.  My question is, “Why not?”  Is the only difference that the murdered child is

wanted and the aborted child is not? 

.......................................................................................................................................................
If you wish to know more, see these links.

Very good:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss3/DNA2.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss3/dna.html&h=543&w=351&sz=42&tbnid=8CP_Dkmi3Hub9M:&tbnh=84&tbnw=54&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dimage%2B%2526%2BDNA%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=image+%26+DNA&usg=__DNAoHOES8pL7lQS_Oaj3PGM13so=&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uDw6UOT9OY2s8QTIrYG4AQ&ved=0CCMQ9QEwBA

            Kent, Athol, “Why Doesn’t a Mother Reject Her Fetus?” Reviews in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2009, Winter, : 2(1): 67-68. This web page is from the Journal Article Summary Service of the National Library of Medicine and is published by the National Institutes of Health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2672992/  (A quotation from this article, “It is a wonder of pregnancy that the fetus is not rejected by the mother’s immune system.”)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 Simplified:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

DNA to RNA to proteins

http://dna-rna.net/

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Detailed information on proteins:

http://www2.chemistry.msu.edu:80/faculty/reusch/VirtTxtJml/proteins.htm

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Chromosomes

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/D/Down.gif&imgrefurl=http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/Chromosomes.html&h=318&w=430&sz=29&tbnid=4sRt4QRwm30RKM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=112&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dimages%2B%2526%2Bchromosomes%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=images+%26+chromosomes&usg=__9giWb2_ajTIbvehrthPPLzjuZwA=&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hkA6UJ36EoT89gS6joGwCg&ved=0CBoQ9QEwAQ

http://images.yourdictionary.com/chromosome

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The Unborn Victims of Violence Act (Public Law 108-212-Apr. 1, 2004

https://www.congress.gov/108/plaws/publ212/PLAW-108publ212.pdf

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Arguments on the Abortion Issue, For and Against

https://www.britannica.com/procon/abortion-debate/Con-Quotes

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Science in Antiquity: Part 9

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

Ca 582-ca 507 BC/BCE: Pythagoras of Samos stresses the mathematical nature of reality. He declares that “All is number.” Along with metaphysical and religious concepts, Pythagoras teaches other subjects including music, mathematics, vibrating lyre strings, and geometry.

25 May 585 BC/BCE: A solar eclipse ends a war between Lydia and the Medes during the Battle of the Eclipse. The battle stopped because of “day turning into night” and a treaty was signed. The eclipse had been accurately predicted by Thales (Ca 640-546 BC.BCE, WBD), a Greek philosopher. He is considered to have been the father of modern astronomy and geometry.

            The end of fighting resulted in a treaty of alliance cemented by the political marriage of a Lydian princess, Aryenis, to a Median prince, Astyages. 

624-546 BC/BCE:  Thales says the Earth’s surface is curved.

635 BC/BCE: Chinese astronomers notice that a comet’s tail always points away from the sun.

780 BC: The first historical mention of a solar eclipse is made in China.

Book Comment: The Narcissist Next Door

             I am going to recommend a book which, for several reasons, you might never otherwise read. The book is The Narcissist Next Door by Jeffrey Kluger. Among the reasons that some might object to reading this book include: the book is entirely secular, the concept of narcissism is not widely understood, the author is not a Christian, and the book contains some profanities and shocking statements.

The Narcissist Next Door concerns how the psychological condition known as narcissism is present in every level of civilization, in our governments, in every institution, in every business, and even in our own families. It is a self-centered type of personality and occurs in varying degrees of severity worldwide. Symptoms of the disorder include a feeling of grandiosity, an excessive need for attention and admiration, and an impaired ability to be empathetic. It is considered to be a psychiatric condition known as narcissistic personality disorder. The cause of the condition cannot be definitively stated but there are numerous suggestions: childhood parental neglect, childhood emotional or physical abuse, the person may crave the feeling of control generated by being able to abuse others who are too weak-willed to oppose them, the person may have a combination of narcissism and sociopathy with a total lack of normal emotions, the person also could have been the family’s golden child who never learned how to hear the word no.

You probably don’t think that you know any narcissists, but you do. They are around you every day, on television, singing the songs you hear on your car’s radio, one of your co-workers, they may be your political leaders, they may be a family member (particularly distressing), they may even be in your church. They may even be one of your deacons or your pastor or your priest.

Kluger points out that, in order to deal with narcissism, you first have to understand what is actually is. He explains what the arrogant narcissist is actually feeling, and gives examples of the narcissists living around us, going so far as to name the names of real people who are obvious narcissists.

Some of Kluger’s chapters are The Bastard in the Corner Office, The Peacock in the Oval Office, The Schmuck in the Next Cubicle, The Beast in Your Bed, and Death Row and Hollywood: Where the Narcissists Won.

One particularly awful type is the spiritual narcissist. These people with narcissist tendencies seem to be in almost every church. These are the persons who are sure that they are correct and who want everyone else to know it. They come across as overbearing, judgemental, and power-hungry. They assume that they are holy and spiritually knowledgeable and that everyone else falls short. This is the sin of Self, I am special. Hear the words I AM, one of the names of God.

You should not just ignore these spiritual narcissists, because they can poison a church. You should also not just attack or lecture them but you should handle the situation in the spirit of Christ. Never become defensive or hostile towards them, because that can interfere with your good judgement. An excellent approach is not to become part of the power struggle by gossiping and buzzing about the problem but, instead, to bring up the subject with trusted church leaders. Protect yourself, putting on the spiritual armor which the Holy Spirit has provided to you, the whole armor of God: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. 

1 Corinthians 7:15, 15:33; Luke 17:3-4; 1 Peter 4:8; Ephesians 3:14-19, 6:10-18.

___________________________________________________________________

As with most books such as this, what you get from the book depends on what you bring with you. You may not agree with everything the author says. Luke (see below) advises you to think for yourself. Read your Bible and to listen to what it says. Do not believe anything just because someone else told to believe it; let the Holy Spirit guide you to the truth.

A general caution: books may give you wonderful new insights and explanations of subjects, but you should never base your Christian beliefs on any one book or the teachings of one person, no matter who they are. All teachings must be consistent with scripture. Read as the Bereans did, with discernment. “… for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Acts 17:11 NASB

Any doctrines must be consistent with the historical full body of Christian thought. Doctrines or teachings inconsistent with scripture in any way must be rejected. You would not eat cheese which had a fuzzy fungus growing on it.

Information you will need to search for this book:

Kluger, Jeffrey, The Narcissist Next Door. Understanding the Monster in Your Family, in Your Office, in Your Bed – In Your World (New York: Riverhead Books, 2014)

Hyper-Male and Hyper-Feminine Portraits of Jesus

 

God is spoken of in the Bible in mostly masculine terms but there are several feminine references as well. God encompasses male, female, and more. He is other, but has given us the Bible and Jesus to show us what he is like.

We do not know what Jesus looked like but he certainly was not a fair-skinned, blond or light brown-haired, blue-eyed European and he did not look like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_Christ

            Some people believe that he is depicted on the controversial Shroud of Turin but the dating of the cloth is highly, even sometimes hotly, disputed.

            Various Christian artists have rendered Jesus in paintings and drawings. Some have emphasized his masculinity, sometimes to absurd levels, and others have stressed his tenderness by depicting him in ways which many would consider to be effeminate.

Google AI says: “The term "effeminate" reflects modern sensibilities; historically, it was about portraying divine perfection and spiritual grace, not necessarily gender ambiguity in a modern sense, though it challenged traditional notions of masculine strength.”

A few examples:

Stephen S. Sawyer’s Undefeated

https://www.art4god.com/store/undefeated

A display of a series of portraits collected by an objectivist (look up objectivist)

https://oneobjectivistsartobjectoftheday.blogspot.com/2011/03/unusual-depictions-of-jesus-week.html

A controversial portrayal of Jesus as a black woman

https://janetmckenzie.com/joppage1.html

The Christ child as a little girl

https://smarthistory.org/ayala-obidos-child-salvator-mundi/

Book Comment: Star Trek FAQ

            Those who love science fiction television and movies are usually enthusiasts of either the Star Trek or Star Wars franchises, but often not of both. I admit to being a Trekkie.

FAQ, for those who do not know, is frequently asked questions. Clark’s book discusses every question you might ask and then a few more. Subjects include the developmental starts and stops of the television shows and movies including planned but never-released projects, the historical and literary background leading up to the first appearance of TOS (The Original Series), as the original Star Trek is often known, corporate backroom deals, the animated series, actor feuds, clashes with producers, gadgets and props, costumes, special effects, and the pre-Trek careers of the directors, producers, network executives, and the actors, including even the “redshirts” and other minor recurring character actors. Clark pulls no punches about some of the abrasive personalities and faults of the people he discusses.

For the hardcore Trek enthusiast, these things alone make this a good read.

Now, as to why this book is being mentioned on this blog: When they actually look at it in depth and with critical thinking, some are surprised that there are religious undertones in much of science fiction, and even in many horror films. The undertones can show an orthodox Christian slant but often they do not. Even those which are actively atheist can touch on religious themes and atheism can be viewed as a religion or, at the very least, a philosophical stance on the subject of religion.

The creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991), was raised in Texas (USA) as a Southern Baptist. As an adult, he rejected organized religion and was often spoken of as an atheist but could more properly be described as a pantheistic agnostic. He thought that in the future mankind would reject religions and become more religiously numinous in an unfocused way with a sort of progressive humanist and secularist religiosity or spirituality. Mankind would not be actively anti-religion but would mostly just ignore it.  Along with this, Roddenberry also exhibited a belief in the ultimate perfectibility of man.

Roddenberry rejected a suggestion from National Broadcasting Company executives to include a chaplain in the Enterprises’ crew. In TOS episodes religious leaders are most commonly troublesome people even when they are genuinely well-meaning. Many are depicted as repressive of original thought.

When seemingly divine almost omnipotent beings occur in the series, they are eventually exposed as being computers developed by long-extinct species or as mortal beings possessing highly advanced technologies.

It was not until the third series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, that a religion was presented as a possibly positive force. The Bajoran people worshipped the prophets, whom other species referred to as the wormhole aliens, not actually divine but highly advanced in their technology.

Some Trekkers (who view Trekkie as a perjorative) will argue for hours about minutiae of Star Trek information, especially about what is canon and what is not. In 1994, Michael Jendra, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, published “Star Trek Fandom as a Religious Phenomenon” in the academic journal, Sociology of Religion. Film director Nicholas Meyer has described Star Trek as a “religion without theology.”

Gene Roddenberry is quoted about this: “I’m not a guru. … I certainly didn’t write Scripture and my feeling is that those who did weren’t treated very well in the end.”

Live Long and Prosper!

Clark, Mark, Star Trek FAQ. Everything Left to Know About the First Voyages of the Starship Enterprise (Milwaukee, WI: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, 2012)

Science in Antiquity: Part 8

 Many modern people have a very limited view of history. They can only see or think about five or ten years into the past. They see history as boring and they think of the ancients as ignorant and backward. This was actually not true. What the ancients lacked was the modern accumulation of facts. An ancient Israelite would have been very puzzled and culture-shocked to have been dumped into the modern world, but he or she could have eventually learned to drive a car or to cook on a stove or to use a cellphone.

The ancients were just as intelligent as we are but the accumulation of scientific facts had not yet reached a critical point. Human knowledge took centuries to double, fact by fact. As knowledge accumulated, the rate of accumulation began to speed up. Every answer exposes a new question. Buckminster Fuller spoke of the Knowledge Doubling Curve which was relatively flat for centuries, then began a slow climb, and then went into an explosive upward thrust.

By the end of the 19^th Century, knowledge was doubling once per century. By about 1945, the rate of doubling was about every 25 years. By 1982, the rate was about every 12-13 months. By 2020, the doubling was occurring about every 12 hours. With at least 50,000,000,000 devices now operating and with the rise of artificial intelligence, the rate may now be in minutes.

 

fl 450-370 BC/BCE: The Greek philosopher Leucippus teaches that all matter is composed of identical eternally existing, constantly moving particles surrounded by nothingness between the particles.  His student, Democritus, further developed the atomic theory.  Democritus taught that everything is material and is created by combinations of eternally existing atoms.

Ca 475 BC/BCE: Death of Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher whose ideas correctly predict one of the main concepts of the modern understanding of the nature of matter. He teaches that solid matter is really made of fire (read this in the modern way as subatomic particles) which is in constant motion.

Ca 490-ca 420 BC/BCE: The Greek philosopher, Protagoras, declares that there is no objective truth and that we all have our own reality.

Ca 500 BC: 1. Cataract surgery is performed in India by Susrata, a surgeon. The use of anesthesia is not mentioned until the 1^st Century AD/CE.

              2. Iron tools appear in China.

              3. Chinese weapon makers invent the crossbow.

               4. In Babylon, mathematical calculations are used to predict the movements and positions of astral bodies.

              5. A Greek physician, Alcmaeon, discovers the Eustachian tubes.

16 July 523 BC/BCE: Ptolemy correctly predicts a lunar eclipse.

The Israel/United States War With Iran

        Recently, during the current Middle East conflict of the United States and Israel (and now, a growing list of other countries) against the Islamic Revolutionary State of Iran, I have seen numerous people online who believe that this is the beginning of World War Three and that the End Times have begun. One commenter flatly stated that the Rapture would occur in the next few days.

        Christians!!!! Listen to the Bible! Base what you believe on what the Bible says. Read Matthew 24:1-36, Mark 13:33-37, and Acts 1:7. The Rapture may occur in the next few days and it may not. We should not worry and fret about it. What we should do is always be ready, not just during worrisome times.

        There are numerous Christian eschatological (End Times) positions ranging from preterism, amillenialism, premillenialism, to postmillenialism, with all sorts of gradations and combinations of the different interpretations. These various interpretations exist because the Bible does not explicitly spell out what will happen during the End Times.

        Questions for which we will have to wait for answers: When will the rapture occur? Will Jesus return during our lifetimes? Who is the Antichrist? Are any modern countries are mentioned in the Bible? Is the Antichrist already alive and active? Which of the Christian eschatological interpretations is correct? Are any of them correct?

        If events do not play out as you have believed that they will, do not reject the faith. Perhaps you, perhaps I, perhaps all the scholars and theologians, have misunderstood what the Bible has said about the End Times. We all start with our own underlying worldviews and, inevitably, our understandings are colored and influenced by those worldviews. Justin Martyr (2nd century) expressed premillenial views but also said "...many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and who are true Christians, think otherwise."

         We really do not know when the End Times will play out, but we do know that to attempt to establish elaborate and highly specific future timelines is forbidden. Jesus told us that.