~ by Jim O'Hara ~
Submitted to the Star Banner, August 3, 2001
Editor,
A propaganda machine has done a real job on the abortion debate. Instead of considering
the usual pros and cons of induced abortions, the debate now focuses on whether a
fertilized egg and an embryo are human beings and whether or not these should be used for
medical research purposes. Members of a religious think tank determined if they could
convince the public a fertilized egg was a human being and to destroy it was murder, they
then would have no problem in enacting laws making it a crime to do anything that
prevents a fertilized egg from becoming a human being. What happens now will be more a
test of the influence of their propaganda than a moral issue.
The think tank persuaded Senator Smith of New Hampshire to introduce a proposed
constitutional amendment in 1996 that life begins in a fertilized egg and anything that
prevents that egg from becoming a human being would be a crime. He was supported by
Senator Ashcroft. Others refused to take this proposed constitutional amendment
seriously. It got nowhere; but, now is being given new life.
A fertilized egg and an embryo are merely that and no more unless these are attached to a
uterus and can grow. These are not persons, and it is not murder to destroy these.
We now are told stem cell research involving fertilized eggs and embryos could
revolutionize the practice of medicine. It seems utterly proper, moral, and sensible to use
our bodies to try to heal other bodies. We give blood and body parts and could give sperm
and eggs for this noble purpose.
James M. O'Hara