These statements make it clear that people at the time
believed human life began at conception. As I read the
article and observed the pictures, I asked myself, what
happened that changed how we determine when life begins?
While I contemplated this question, I came across
another item that further sent me into a tailspin. Attached
to someone’s tweet was a picture of an old pamphlet that
was published and distributed by Planned Parenthood. This
particular pamphlet was dated 1952 and was produced to
encourage families to plan when they would have children.
It answered several questions about birth control. In answer
to the question, “Is it an abortion?” the pamphlet explains:
“Definitely not. An abortion requires an operation. It
kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is danger-
ous to your life and health. It may make you sterile so
that when you want a child, you cannot have it.”
Again, I found myself asking, what happened that has
brought us to where we are now? Today, doctors look at
embryonic pictures and refer to what is seen as merely a
“fetus” or “tissue.” Everyone is careful not to define what is
growing in a mother’s womb as being a life or a baby. It is
now estimated that more than 56 million babies have been
aborted since 1973. In 2016, we were shocked to view videos
showing employees of Planned Parenthood discussing the
selling of aborted baby parts for profit. Then there is the
statement by Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at the
University Center for Human Values at Princeton University,
in his book Practical Ethics: “Killing a defective infant is not
morally equivalent to killing a person. Sometimes it is not
wrong at all.”
When asked if this quote is accurate, Singer explains on
his website, “It is accurate but can be misleading if read
without an understanding of what I mean by the term
“person” (which is discussed in Practical Ethics, from which
that quotation is taken). I use the term “person” to refer to
a being who is capable of anticipating the future, of having
wants and desires for the future. ... I think that it is generally
a greater wrong to kill such a being than it is to kill a being
that has no sense of existing over time. Newborn human
babies have no sense of their own existence over time. So
killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person,
that is, a being who wants to go on living. That doesn’t mean
that it is not almost always a terrible thing to do. It is, but
that is because most infants are loved and cherished by their
parents, and to kill an infant is usually to do a great wrong
to its parents.” 1
Singer actually admits that he believes an infant is not a
person. Wow! Ironically, Singer, an advocate for infanticide
and euthanasia, is the author of The Life You Can Save and
founder of a nonprofit of the same name that is “devoted
to spreading [his] ideas about why we should do more to
improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty.”
Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsyl-
vania and the founding director of the University Center
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