Dehumanizing to kill

During WWII, pilots dropping bombs on Japan referred to "Japs". During slavery, people with more melatonin in their skin were called the "N-" word. The Nazis had their own term for Jewish people. Communists attempting to take over our country tried to do the same by calling patriotic citizens "deplorables" and parents at school board meetings "domestic terrorists". As a culture, we've been calling our smallest children "fetuses" for decades, replacing how we used to call pregnant mothers as being "with child". This is how groups of living human beings are historically dehumanized for extermination.

I was recently on social media where someone with unidentifiable numbers for a name said, "You're not killing a child, it's just a fetus." Well, "fetus" is Latin for "young one". It would be like justifying killing an adult by saying, "they're not human, they're only a homo sapien" or "they're not human, they're only an adult". A child during fetal development is the exact same child they will be following birth, even if smaller and younger. These are actual babies, whether we call the child a fetus, preborn, newborn, infant, child, or baby. Regardless what we call them, they are still living human beings, they are still our children dependent on adults to protect them. Just because we call a certain segment of living human beings a name to dehumanize them, does not give us the right to kill them.

The child with their own unique living human DNA in their first cell - and every cell of their body - has never been, and will never be, anything but a living human being. A human being can only be a human being, just as a puppy can only ever be a dog, a colt can only be a horse, and an eaglet will always and only be an eagle (and is protected by law before even being hatched!). The human child is always a human child regardless how young. We all went through fetal development, childhood, and adulthood. We were not less human than we are right now at any stage.

If any one of our cells - or very first cell - were found on any other planet, scientists would say we found human life. In fact, nine out of ten embryologist (96%) - scientists, most specifically, biologists who specialize in studying human beings during our earliest development - agree that we are fully living human beings the moment of our first cell when we are conceived. Nothing will be added to our very first cell except nutrition, oxygen, and time, just as we continue to need throughout our lifetime.

Scientists can tell from any one of the cells from your body if you are male or female. In every cell of your body is six feet of genetic code which is the exact same DNA that was in your first cell the moment you were conceived. No one else could ever be you.

As human beings, we go through multiple developmental stages and call ourselves many things based on our age - embryo, fetus, toddler, teenager - our developmental stage only defines our age and does not make us any less human.

No matter what we call ourselves, no one is justified in taking away any innocent human being's right to continue living. Whether it's with a gun, scalpel, or machine, purposefully ending someone's life is morally wrong, regardless your relationship to that person, and especially if you are in a position of power and trust, and they are dependent on you to protect them.

From the moment two gametes (ovum and spermatozoa) meet and become one, a new human being comes into existence. This human being has never lived before, and however long they live, this will be their only experience in the world. No one else will ever have their DNA, fingerprints, face, personality, brain, heart, or soul.

A child has a heartbeat that will last their entire lifetime - however long they live - by 21 days from conception. We have our own brainwaves that can be detected by 34 days from conception, approximately the same time a mother suspects or finds out she is pregnant. A child will move away from touch to his or her face by seven weeks of a forty-week pregnancy.

Most abortions are performed after a mother discovers she's pregnant when a child already has their own unique living human DNA in each of hundreds or thousands of organized cells and systems, heartbeat, blood type, brainwaves, recognizable face, fingers, toes, and will move away to try to get away from abortion instruments.

Abortion is the intentional killing of a living human being causing their untimely death. Much like shooting a man in his own home blind-folded, just because we close our eyes to the child who is peacefully at home within their mother does not make them any less visibly human or our act of killing them any less heinous.

These children are no less living and human than you and me. Intentionally killing a child is unnecessary, and pregnant mothers deserve better. Fathers need to speak up to protect these children and support their mothers. Churches and communities need to support the miracle of new life and childbirth.

These are the same children they will be following birth. This is why it needs to be illegal to kill a child at any age or developmental stage. The FDA needs to ban drugs intended to kill human beings. And the medical field needs to focus on saving lives and improving health, again.

We have laws even though we know some people will break the law. Slavery still happens, but when good law is enforced, fewer people are victimized by the crime and people can be legally rescued and protected. The law instructs people that something is morally wrong. And people have to knowingly break the law to harm someone.

God shows us in Scripture how He views children in the womb as equally valuable and worth protecting as an adult. In Exodus, when God is giving the original law for murder, God gives a glimpse into the womb long before ultrasound.

If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows. But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life— eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe. (Exodus 21:22-25)

Whatever we call ourselves prior to being born, God calls these young ones children. To quote the philosopher Dr. Seuss, "a person's a person, no matter how small." To that, I can only add that a person is a person no matter what we call them.

Child Development | Colorado Life Initiative

Faye Barnhart is a Life Affirming Specialist and Co-Proponent of the Colorado Life Initiative. She was a women’s advocate for 19 years, served four pregnancy care centers in two states, a federal think tank on the co-occurrence of adult and child violence, was an aid at the state Capitol, and pursued a career in Communications. She raised her children as a single parent and is now married with an adopted special needs son and enjoys grandchildren, including a grandbaby who needed life-saving surgery at birth. She has accepted Christ as her personal Savior and Lord.