POTENTIAL HUMAN BEING

 The excited couple peered intently at the image on the monitor; it was the image of their baby as shown in the sonogram. The baby was alive and growing; temporarily within the mother’s womb. In a few months the baby would pass into the next phase of his / her life onto the exciting journey of living among the world at large. The parents immediately knew that the image was the product of their love….another human being, a person. The baby was real; there was nothing potential about it…and it was clearly one like them, a human being.

There is a new phrase that is becoming commonplace in today’s vocabulary – “potential human beings.” Who is a potential human being?  Are you..or you.. or you..or ? While the phrase is generally applied to a baby in a mother’s womb, it can in fact be applied in many circumstances. Is a mentally or physically disabled child or adult only potentially a human being, since such a being could be classified as not totally human in the same way as an allegedly “normal” person? Should anyone with any psychological or physical impairment be placed in the “potential human being” classification?  This term can be applied to any person, with the consequences that it becomes easy to also place restrictions on those who do not seem to be truly human. Totalitarian governments throughout history have applied similar terms and concepts to individuals and groups, which they wanted to marginalize or eliminate from their societies. Nazism, Stalinism, Maoism, and other isms have all minimized the value of specific groups and individuals by classifying them as not being truly human.

The fact is that science, as well as religion, has concluded that actual human life begins at conception and ends only at natural death. Based upon scientific fact, there is no such a state as a “potential human being.” Either one is a human being or one is not—period!

As testified by numerous scientists in the field of biology and medicine, human life begins at conception. These include but are not limited to the following.

• Dr. Watson A. Bowes / Dr. Jerome Le Jeune / Dr. Alfred M. Bongioanni/ Dr, Bernard Nathanson/ Dr. Landrum Shettles
• Professor Hymie Gordon/Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth/ Ashley Montague
• Peter Singer, an alleged ethicist, and other abortionists, including some scientists, also agree that life begins at conception. They just argue that is moral to take another human’s life….but not their own.

Thus there is an ever increasing body of scientific opinion that human life begins at conception. Yet there remains a serious drumbeat for promoting abortion. If science has concluded that human life exists from the moment of conception and that the ending of a human life through abortion is acceptable, then what conclusions must be drawn about the value of all human life. At what stage can an individual or society decide that a human being no longer has any worth and can be eliminated? When does the taking of any innocent human life become moral? The correct answer is Never. However, many will answer incorrectly with “when I or society think that it is moral.”

Be careful humanity, you may be paving the way for your own extinction.