The Language of Life & Death

Last night I watched a program called Tribal Life, seemingly a reality show about the daily life of a tribal community on an island off the coast of Australia. This was not a hide-behind-the-trees documentary, but the cameras were a part of the tribe's routine. In fact, at times this tribe spoke very good English. It was obvious that this remote society was influenced by western culture.

I was taken aback when the program featured a young family with 3 kids--a 4th on the way. But this 4th child was too great of a burden, so with the aid of some tree bark and some other plants known to induce an abortion, the husband and wife ended the life of their unborn child. They, like humans around the globe, spoke of the abortion as something less ominous, as if he didn't intentionally prepare the toxic drink to end the life of that child, as if she didn't intentionally drink the poison. For them, it was a miscarriage. Even the show narrator avoided calling it what it was. The term abortion was never used.

This smoke-and-mirrors approach is hardly new, nor is it limited to uncivilized parts of the world. In fact, the language of death in our society has had to be reframed such that the sting of guilt doesn't exist. That's why we see the pro-aborts refer to Plan B as contraception instead of the abortifacient that it is. "Let no one deceive you with empty words" (Eph 5:6).

Confusing people with language in biotechnology and the abortion arena is a problem that is not going away. So as the economy continues to nose dive, we need to be prepared to educate young women that when they sell their eggs, the eggs are being fertilized. A fertilized egg is an embryo. Recently a feminist organization put out a press release claiming that evangelicals believed eggs to be more valuable than human persons. Either a deliberate obfuscation, or they are severely uninformed. We are cautioning young women by telling them the truth and eliminating the confusion in terminology. Another word for a fertilized egg is "offspring." So as young women are offered thousands of dollars for what they perceive to be nothing more than an altruistic tissue donation, the truth is that they are being exploited.

So what does this have to do with the church and with women's ministry?? Everything! We are in a unique position to educate our congregations and communities on these and similar issues. The biotech and fertility industries have a conflict of interest--they make money off of egg donations. Oooops! Yet we find another misuse of language. This is hardly a donation--it's a sale.

http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/planB/planBQandA.htm

“Plan B acts primarily by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary (ovulation). It may prevent the union of sperm and egg (fertilization). If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb (implantation). If a fertilized egg is implanted prior to taking Plan B, Plan B will not work."

The Feminist Majority Prefers Women Kept Stupid

Yesterday, the Feminist Majority put out a statement against Colorado's Amendment 48. Apparently, Amendment 48 would recognize the personhood of embyos. This is what the Feminist Majority had to say about that:

we want to make sure that women have more rights than an egg!

Well, either their statement reflects a profound ignorance--because those of us who are prolife do not equate eggs with embryos-- or this is what they have been wanting to say all along. With smoke and mirrors, they speak of the embryo in its pre-fertilized state so as to avoid the scientific truth we know about all embryos...that they are living human organisms. Eggs are not. Why do they do they insist on ignoring this scientifically obvious difference? Because the Feminist Majority really does believe that grown women have more rights than smaller humans, and that this goes against the conscience of the majority of Americans. It is necessary to their agenda to obfuscate this issue because an egg with moral worth is not an egg, its an embryo. Young women in their reproductive years are being psychologically primed to donate their eggs for research purposes, but these eggs never remain eggs, they become embryos. If they are persuaded to believe falsely that their eggs forever remain eggs, then they don't have to consider that the eggs they give up actually become their embryonic offspring. What woman is not repulsed by the notion if giving up her offspring for research? For the Feminist Majority to speak of fertilized eggs as simply eggs is scientifically false and a deliberate attempt to confuse the same women they believe have more rights than these much smaller humans. How can they, the Feminist Majority, claim to respect the rights of women if they can't respect our basic intelligence?

3 Reasons to Oppose Egg Donation that Stand Together or Fall Together

1. There are complicationes associated with the harvesting of eggs from a woman's body. The risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome is real.

2. Making money from selling eggs is hardly a donation. Profiting from this is wrong.

3. Eggs donated are used to create embryos that will either

A. become healthy and mature - your child.
B. Die because the procedure didn't "take" - your child
C. Are asexually "tricked" to become real embryos for destructive research purposes - your child

Profiting from the egg market is wrong only because of the inherent dignity of humanity that is grounded in the image of God. And if not for God, if not for truth, we wouldn't need to be bothered by the health risks associated with the scramble for eggs. No serious reason to care.

If this is really all there is, then there is no reason to care about anyone else....but because this isn't all there is, because God exists, we do care about the well-being of others.

Unfertilized eggs may not be people, but the intent is not for them to remain in the unfertilized state. They are intended to become life, i.e. people, either for purposes of embryo-destructive research or for assisting the infertile in having children. But it is because of the sanctity of all human life, no matter the age or the stage, that provides the basis for wanting to avoid risking women's health and viewing the profit from eggs sales as unethical.

Open Borders for Foreign Egg "Donors"

A British girl discovered while reading a magazine that she can sell her eggs in America and make lots of money. She donated her eggs and earned 15000 pounds (currently $28k-$30k US dollars) and was able to pay off her credit card debt. The article goes on...

Miss Saunders works as a software co-ordinator during the day and works five nights a week in two different pubs, earning a total of about £20,000 a year.

'I'm quite a bit in debt and I just want to get it paid off really. I ran up the debts by just being an idiot.

'I really could do with the money. I told my mum about it and she said, 'Well, if it get's you a bit of money, it's a good idea.'

How is that for a philosophy of life.... If it gets you a bit of money, it's a good idea. And with the very real risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) that Josephine Quintavalle points out in the article, this isn't a matter of just selling eggs. Articles have been written that quote young women who say "it's not like I'm selling a baby." Of course your egg is not a baby, but it becomes your baby when it is fertilized....whether by sperm or through somatic cell nuclear transfer. Egg donation, er, egg sales is a santity of life issue, like it or not.