Pro-Life or Pro-Abortion or Neither

I am pro-Life, but NOT pro-fetus. That's why I have six adopted children. To argue that the fetus is a "child" as some billboards proclaim, is specious. If it's your point of view because of your religion, fine, don't get an abortion, but if you believe in freedom of religion then you have no right to foist that mistaken view on everyone else.  To argue that because an embryo has the potential to become a human being, abortion should be prohibited, is silly. An acorn has the potential to become an oak tree, yet no one would argue that destroying an acorn is like cutting down an oak tree. Those who take that position rarely bother to stop and think about what it means to be a human.

At the molecular level we are indistinguishable from plants and bacteria -- on a chemical level our cells function the same as brewer's yeast, a single cell organism; and we share a 98.5% genetic (DNA coding) with chimpanzees -- which are also "alive." Therefore, the important question one must ask is at what point the fetus or zygote acquires those characteristics that make us human, for no one would deny that we are indeed profoundly different from other forms of life. The point at which humanness is acquired (not personhood, which is a legal concept) becomes important.

Traditionally, the anti-abortion advocates have argued that because the DNA genetic code exists at conception, that is when "life" begins. That is like saying a building is complete when the blueprints are done. The combining creates the DNA blueprint, but dead tissue excised in a hospital has the same DNA blueprint, and cancerous tumors contain genetic uniqueness, yet no one would call them "life" worthy of preservation. Not to mention the fact that only about 1/3 of all conceptions lead to a successful birth -- nature performs abortions at a much higher rate than humans.

I subscribe to the position that the potential for humanness begins at the moment when the cerebral cortex is formed and the synapses begin functioning. This is not a unique nor new position. The Jesuit scholar Teilhard de Chardin and the Catholic theologian Bernard Haring have both written that the cerebral cortex is the "center of all personal manifestations and activities." It is here that speech, conscious movement, visual information and sensory stimuli are all processed. The enlarged cerebral cortex is unique to humans, and it becomes a functioning entity sometime between 25 and 30 weeks of development. Coincidentally, that is also when electroencephalographic readings take place. (The absence of EEG readings is now widely used as a determination of death.) Teilhard de Chardin, who was a paleontologist, as well as a theologian, regarded the "development of an enlarged cerebral cortex as almost a second creation -- as a sign from God that humanity is, indeed, special, regardless of the fact that we share a common ancestry with all other life."

I don’t subscribe to Theilhard’s spiritual view of the world and cite him merely to point out that there exists a variety of religious viewpoints with regard to abortion. But to me many of those who claim to be “pro-Life” are merely parroting a political position and are being manipulated for political ends rather than promoting a coherent philosophical view.