When Does Human Life Begin

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When Does Human Life Begin?

• Adventists Attitude Towards
• Human Life
• By
• Dr. Nic Samojluk

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Does it begin at birth?
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Human Life Begins at Birth

• John V. Stevens, Sr.
• Christ valued choice over life. . . . Every
  human being, created in the image of God, is
  endowed with a power akin to the
  Creator--individuality, power to think and to do.
  (Education, page 170) This takes place after
  birth, when the developing baby becomes a
  person.
• John V. Stevens, Sr. Abortion Answers and
  Attitudes, Pacific Union Recorder (20 Aug. 1990)
  

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Human Life Begins Before Birth!

• Dr, Sean Pitman
• For me, the human function requires a brain that
  can process and appreciate and store the memory
  of sensations and feelings. Without this ability,
  the definition of "being human" has not been met
  any more than it has been met by my appendix or
  by the potential of an unfertilized egg and
  spermatozoon that have not yet met.

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No brain No human No murder

• Dr, Sean Pitman
• The "potential" of being human is not the same
  thing as actually being human.
• I don't think there is any doubt. The embryo,
  within the first few weeks of life, does not have
  a brain - no doubt. No brain no human. No
  human no murder. Simple.

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When Does Human Life Begin?

• Dr, Sean Pitman
• First, intermittent electroencephalographic
  bursts in both cerebral hemispheres are first
  seen at 20 weeks gestation they become sustained
  at 22 weeks and bilaterally synchronous at 26 to
  27 weeks.

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Questions for Dr. Sean Pitman

• Can you be a little bit more precise?
• Does human life begin at 20, 22, 26, or 27 weeks
  of gestation?
• At what precise stage of pregnancy does it become
  murder to kill the baby?
• Isnt seven weeks of a gray area a little bit too
  much?

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Questions for Dr. Sean Pitman

• Would it make sense for President bush to order
  the U.S. patrol agents to secure the borders, and
  then tell them that the U.S. border lies
  somewhere between the 27 and 34 parallel?
• How could border patrol agents protect our
  borders on the basis of a fuzzy idea where those
  borders lie?

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Questions for Dr. Sean Pitman

• What is the significance of the fact that current
  technology can detect brain activity somewhere
  between the 20th and the 27th week of pregnancy?
• Can developing babies really think or make
  moral decision at that stage?
• Is a just born baby able to distinguish between
  right and wrong?

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When Does Human Life Begin?

• Dr, Sean Pitman
• It seems then, to me at least, most reasonable
  and consistent to define what it takes to be
  human by what it is that makes human unique from
  other living things. That, for me, is the
  uniqueness of the human mind - the higher
  cortical brain function of the human mind.
  Therefore, until or unless such a brain has been
  formed, the definition of "being human" has not
  been met.

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Questions for Dr. Sean Pitman

• If higher brain cortical function is a
  requirement for membership in the human family,
  is it morally right to kill a baby who does not
  meet this criteria?
• What about the comatose patients? Some have
  recovered their brain functions afternot nine
  months or less, butmany years later!

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The Pitman/Samojluk Debate

• If you are interested in reading the long debate
  between Dr. Sean Pitman and myself dealing with
  this topic, write down the Internet link listed
  at the bottom.
• "Jumping Through the Loop in the Kingdom of the
  Blind " http//sdaforum.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/vi
  ewtopic.php?t7669

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When Does Human Life Begin?

• Dr. Gerald Winslow
• The church has chosen not to define the precise
  moment human life begins--a moment science finds
  difficult to pinpoint.
• "Broader Religious Input Needed in Stem Cell
  Debate, Says Adventist Ethicist"
  http//news.adventist.org/data/2001/07/0997187695
  /index.html.en

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More from Dr. Gerald Winslow

• "But the prenatal life we're protecting exists
  once an 'established pregnancy' can be
  ascertained."
• Question Does Dr. Winslow mean we should protect
  the unborn from the moment of conception?

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The Viability Autonomy Argument

• We admit, argued Dr. Winslow, that the early
  stages of human development we do not have a
  person in the full sense of the word, and not
  even immediately after birth nevertheless, the
  destruction of a fetus after the point of
  viability should raise serious concerns. To this,
  we must add that the established human life
  should take precedence over the prepersonal human
  life and we should not forget the value of
  personal autonomy.
• Gerald Winslow, Abortion and Christian
  Principles Ministry (May 1988) 12-16.

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What is so Magic About the Ability to Survive?
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What Does Autonomy Really Mean?

• Autonomy in fact means self rule.
• Isnt the pregnant woman subject to Gods Law
  instead of self rule?
• Does the pregnant woman really own her body and
  the body of the baby she is carrying?
• Did not Paul state that our body belongs to God?

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A Moral Question to Ponder

• Why is this baby whose tiny hand is grasping the
  hand of the surgeon considered less than human?

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Why Does the SDA Church Justify Abortion?

• Neal Wilson, former General Conference President.
• Though we walk the fence, Adventists lean
  towards abortion rather than against it. Because
  we realize we are confronted by big problems of
  hunger and overpopulation, we do not oppose
  family planning and appropriate endeavors to
  control population.

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When Did Wilson State This?

• Neal Wilson made this statement in 1970, two
  years before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized
  abortion.
• This means that the Adventist church led the way
  for the killing of the unborn.
• Our hospital in Hawaii started performing
  abortions on demand right away!

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Reference for Wilsons Statement

• George B. Gainer, Abortion History of Adventist
  guidelines Ministry (Aug. 1991) 11-17. Accessed
  from http//www.adventistarchives.org/docs/MIN/MIN
  1991-08/index.djvu?djvuoptspage11 on 25 Oct.
  2006.