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Psalm 139:13-16

Is abortion right? 71% of Americans favor some restrictions on abortion. (Foster Letter 2/15/01)

How many children are aborted? Worldwide, 55 million unborn children are killed every year. Around the world, every day 150,685 children are killed by abortion; every hour, 6278; and every minute, 105. Those are the reported cases. If you are an American citizen, no doubt your greatest interest is in your own nation, as is mine. Let me break the abortions down to a national statistic: 1,600,000 babies are aborted in these United States every year. Per day, that's 4,383; per hour, that's 183; per minute, there are 3. Sanctity of Life, C. Swindoll, Word, 1990, p. 13 (40 minute message =7,320

When does human life begin?
The question of when life begins is debated among philosophers, medical specialists, and authorities in other fields, but the Bible seems to be very clear that God recognizes the unborn child's full personhood.

The Bible often mentions children, both unborn and born, and it never refers to them in any way other than as full-fledged people. Psalm 139:13-16 describes God's personal involvement in David's unborn life:
   •  For Thou didst form my inward parts;
   •  Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb....
   •  My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret....

If David had been the only person to write this thought, we might say he was just being poetic. But other Bible writers said the same thing.

The prophet Isaiah wrote, 'The Lord called me from the womb' (49:1);
God said to Jeremiah, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you' (1:5);
and the Apostle Paul, hundreds of years later, wrote, 'He who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb...' (Gal. 1:15).
The beginning or meaning of 'personhood' did not seem complicated to these men.

WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE BEGIN?

Some scholars have stated that this question is the most fundamental moral question of our time. It is the one question we avoid most and the only one that can deliver us from our present dilemma and moral confusion. It is the main question that deals with the sanctity of human life.

Our current attitudes toward life in our society are arising from a moral relativism that is unbelievably critical of moral absolutes. It seems as though today's culture is profoundly afraid of what it might discover by studying the question of the origin of human life. Have we been wrong? Are we tolerating mass murder and daily contributing to it by our ignorance, silence, and passivity?

Let's start with God. Yes, that's where the problem centers-in the existence of God. The origin of human life is not merely a scientific question; it is a religious issue.

Two movements have contributed greatly to our moral catastrophe are evolution and secular humanism (which bases its beliefs upon evolutionary understandings). Evolution has no room for God. It has devaluated human life because it sees the life question as a biological one. In its view, the universe and all it contains-and its subsequent elements that came together in some way to produce animal life and eventually human life- just happened!

The Bible contains a different answer. It begins with these words in Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In the Genesis account we learn several interesting things about the creation of human life. Consider first the teaching of Genesis 1:26-28:
Then God said, "Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

According to the biblical account, human life was created, not evolved from animal life. The word "created" (bara in Hebrew) means to make something out of nothing; no previously existing materials were used.

Not only was human life created by God, but we are told that it was made in God's image and according to God's likeness. Since man was created in the image of God, and God is spirit (John 4:24), having no physical body, then the "image" must refer to man's personality or soul and spirit, and not his physical body.

In Genesis 2:7 we learn how God designed the human body.
The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Human life is the result of the creative breath (life) of God. The physical body comes from "the dust of the ground." As most of us know, that statement is chemically true: The exact elements of the soil are found in the human anatomy. That is why at physical death the body decays and becomes dust again. The Bible predicted that this would happen (Genesis 3:19).

James 2:26 tells us that "the body without the spirit is dead." Consider these interesting passages in the Book of Job:

Job 27:3-"As long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils...
Job 33:4-"The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life."
Job 34:14-15-"If He should set His heart on it, if He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath would perish together, and man would return to dust."

The "image of God" refers to the spirit and soul of every human being. The "soul" possess all the marks and responses of our personality. The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (called the Septuagint) uses the Greek word for "soul" over 900 times. It is used 101 times in the New Testament and is frequently interchangeable with our English word "person." Our English word "psychology," the study of the soul, comes from the Greek word psyche. The "soul" loves, thinks, hates, perceives, decides, etc. When groups of people are counted, they are often referred to as "souls" (Acts :7:14; 27:37; 1 Peter 3:20).

Is the baby in the womb a life?

Many argue that abortion does not involve taking a human life.

They say there is no proof that life begins until a child is born. In its historic Roe v. Wade decision, the United States Supreme Court concluded that it could not decide when human life begins-that the fetus may be destroyed "for any reason or no reason."

Many believe, however, that in the decision the Supreme Court overlooked overwhelming evidence. One aspect of that evidence was dramatized and documented in 1979 in a historic feature on CBS television. For the first time in history, television viewers coast to coast saw motion pictures of the human fetus in the womb. The pictures made plain that even at the age of forty days, a fetus in the womb has a beating heart, a slender spine, and a brain that is already sending out nerve impulses. The feature stressed that this was human life, each one a "life never seen on earth and never to be repeated."

Recently, Time magazine made a similar point. "Even in the earliest stages of pregnancy," the magazine said, "the embryo is amazingly baby-like. By the ninth week the fetus is kicking and wiggling....Its sex can be recognized, and at one point it seems to be trying to shield its eyes from the lights of the camera."

Is a fetus only flesh? Dr. C. Everett Koop, well-known for his outstanding work in surgical pediatrics, has this to say in his book The Right to Live: The Right to Die: "Once there is the union of sperm and egg, and the 23 chromosomes of each are brought together, that one cell with its 46 chromosomes has all of the DNA, (deoxyribonucleic acid), the whole genetic code that will, if not interrupted, make a human being just like you with the potential for God-consciousness." He asks a crucial question, "At what point can one consider this life to be worthless and the next minute consider the same life to be precious?"

Later in his book Dr. Koop, who is a Christian, says, "As recently as 1967, at the first international conference on abortion, a purely secular group of people said, 'We can find no point in time between the union of sperm and egg and the birth of an infant at which point we can say this is not a human life.'"

It is this human life that is the victim of abortion. Some fetuses are removed from the womb by suction, in a mass of blood and tissue. Some are destroyed by scraping from the womb, and some are drowned in an injection salt solution. Still others are removed by surgery not unlike a Caesarian operation, and the fetus is left to die if it is not already dead. In every case, regardless of the means, a precious life is blotted out.

C. Everett Koop says that in his thirty-five years in medicine he has never seen one case where abortion was necessary to save a mother's life.

A very pertinent question:

WHEN DOES A PERSON RECEIVE A SOUL?

Those who believe in reincarnation believe that souls are in existence before bodies are created. However, Genesis 2:7 contradicts that theory. God made the human body and then breathed into its nostrils the breath of life, with the result being a living soul.

In Genesis 5:1-3 we read:
"This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth."

As we have already seen, the words "image" and "likeness" do not refer to a physical body, because God did not have a physical body when Adam and Eve were created. God's creation of male and female resulted in His evaluation that they were now "mankind" (human life). When parents have a child in their own likeness and after their own image, it speaks of the soul of the child and not simply the physical body.

An interesting passage that reflects on the sanctity of human life and the fact of human life existing in the womb from the moment of conception is I found in Psalm 51:5. King David said:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

According to these words, sin was present at the moment of conception. The Bible teaches that every person is a sinner, and that the presence of sin is a consequence of Adam's disobedience to God. We are held accountable for personal sin before God, but the fact and presence of sin exist in every person's "heart" because of the original sin and disobedience of Adam.

The fact of human life being in the womb of a woman is well-established in the Bible.

Genesis 16:11-"You are with child, and you shall bear a son."

Matthew 1: 18-"She was found with child of the Holy Spirit."

Matthew 1:20-"That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."

Luke 1:31- "You will conceive in your womb."

Luke 1:35- "That Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."

Luke 1:36- "...conceived a son."

Luke 1:41-44- "The babe leaped in her womb for joy."

One of the most marvelous passages on the existence of human life within the womb of a woman is found in Psalm 139:13-18. Carefully read these words as they relate to the issue of human life:

You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You. English Standard Version

[13] For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. NIV
[13] For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. New American Standard
[13] You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. New Living Translation

This passage in Psalm 139 gives proof that a real person is existing in the mother's womb. Deuteronomy 32:6 asks the question "Has He not made you and established you?"

Job 10:8-12 states:
Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity; yet You would destroy me. Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again? Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit.

Job 31:15 adds, "Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?"

There can be no doubt in any honest person's mind who has studied the Bible carefully that it teaches the existence of human life in the womb. A passage such as Exodus 21:22-23 relates powerfully to the issue of abortion in our day:

If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no lasting harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any lasting harm follows, then you shall give life for life.

Here, in a very clear example, the baby in the womb of this woman is considered as a human being, and if it is killed in the process of this fight, then the penalty is "life for life." In other words, the death penalty is used when a baby's life in the womb is destroyed!

Early church father Tertullian said, "Prevention of birth is premature murder, and it makes no difference whether it is a life already born that one snatches away or a life that is coming to birth that one destroys. The future man is a man already. The whole fruit is present in the seed."

The Bible says that Mary was "great with child" (Luke 2:5). An expectant mother is a woman "with child." To terminate the life of that child is murder.

Isaiah 44:24 makes it clear: "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb."

Those who attempt to compare the human fetus to an animal or refer to it as an "unwanted pregnancy," a mere piece of unnecessary flesh, had better consider carefully the concern of God for human life. Consider what Matthew 6:25-26 teaches:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Human life is more valuable than food, clothing, or birds!
In a cogent argument presented to the New Jersey Legislature, Edwin H. Palmer, M.D., said:
"If the unborn baby is a person with a separate identity and is not just an appendage of the mother's body, then all the stirring arguments of the pro-abortionists apply not only to the mother, but also to the child within the mother. Then he, too, has rights that the mother may not interfere with. And his prime right is the freedom to live. He is not just a 'thing' that a mother may dispose of like a tonsil or a scab. And the state's duty is to protect him against any unwarranted deprivation of his life and pursuit of happiness.

"The pro-abortionists speak eloquent about the rights of the mother in her private affairs and the unjustifiable interference by the government into the privacy of her bedroom." But what about a human being's basic, God-given right to life?

When is human life expendable? The question seems to have an easy answer-never! There is no life not worth saving. Two persons, or fifty, or even an entire nation will team up to find a child lost on a mountain, rescue a miner trapped by an explosion, or free a terrorist's hostage.

And yet millions of lives are being written off, snuffed out quietly and efficiently with scientific expertise. In fact, in the United States in 1979 the legal act of abortion caused more deaths than heart disease or cancer.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we wish."

In looking at this momentous question of abortion the question comes, "What about stem-cell research?" How should a Bible believer look at this, and how does it relate to abortion?

STEM CELL RESEARCH

As Bible believing Christians we applaud the relief of human suffering and attempts to cure disease. Our calling is to follow Christ, who himself "went to all the towns and villages…healing every disease and every sickness" (Matthew 9:35), and who taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

Regenerative medicine-the replacement of defective or diseased human tissue with healthy new tissue derived from stem cells-has moved quickly over the past decade from hopeful speculation to some early clinical successes. The potential this has to heal chronic debilitative diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson's disease, and serious injuries, such as spinal cord injuries, could result in a great blessing to humankind since these types of diseases and injuries are among the leading causes of death and disability in the industrialized world.

But, while affirming the promise this research has for good, we object strongly to the notion that pursuing cures for some ever justifies intentionally destroying other human lives to achieve those cures. Thus, while we embrace the experimental research and therapeutic use of adult stem cells, we reject embryo-destructive research or therapy.

Stem cells are the unspecialized "master cells" of the body. They are able to produce all of the other types of cells (skin, brain, muscle, etc.). Human embryos have been promoted by some as an excellent source of stem cells. Nevertheless, a human embryo is a human life, no matter his or her age, manner of conception (natural conception, in vitro fertilization, or cloning), or location (uterus, test tube, or Petri dish). Embryonic stem cells can be obtained only at the cost of ending these innocent human lives. We cannot accept the destruction of these young and defenseless humans. It is incumbent on a just society to protect the lives of these little ones and to search for alternative sources of stem cells.

Researchers are currently making great strides with stem cells from non-embryonic sources. Stem cells can be found in many of the various tissues of the body, as well as from placentas and umbilical cords. Stem cells from these tissues are known as adult stem cells, and obtaining them does not require the destruction of human life. Furthermore, we note that adult stem cells-in contrast to embryonic stem cells-have shown initial success in the actual treatment of human disease. On August 9, 2001, President Bush banned federal funding for research on living embryos while authorizing tax-funded research on embryonic stern cells
from embryos which already had been destroyed. We affirm the desire to create a "culture of life" in America, and, therefore, call on the public and private sectors to affirm the sanctity of human life by rejecting human embryo-destructive research and pursuing adult stem cell research.

The most important question in this debate is whether we ought to engage in cellular manipulation that results in the destruction of our youngest human beings. Neither the scientific community nor the biotechnology industry should decide this question. We all have a stake in this matter since it threatens to redefine our understanding of what it means to be human and undermine the respect we owe to individual human lives, born and unborn. Adult stem cell research provides the opportunity to participate in the potential benefits of regenerative medicine without compromising deeply held beliefs about human life. Human embryonic stem cell research represents a barbaric assault on the dignity of humankind and, therefore, erodes one of the fundamental values that have shaped our civilization.

WHAT ABOUT EUTHANASIA?

Euthanasia (so-called "mercy-killing") builds its case on the "quality of life" rather than the sanctity of life. Proponents speak of human dignity and the "right to die," but underneath it all is a secular view that does honor human life as being created by God. It rules God out and seeks to make pragmatic decisions on who deserves to live.

Arguments are often presented that deal with intense physical suffering or serious physical handicap. People speak of how a person would be "better off" if he were allowed to take his own life or to instruct someone else to do it for him.

Abortion and euthanasia were moral issues in Hitler's diabolical scheme to rid the world of "undesirables." The moral catastrophe affecting us has not only allowed the death of millions of babies, but now we are discussing how to eliminate thousands of our elderly citizens who are not active and seemingly demonstrate no useful purpose to society. People see the care of the elderly as a strain upon our economic situation, and the rising costs of medical care are continuing to encourage euthanasia advocates toward stronger action in the legislative process.

In USA Today in the spring of 1989, an article appeared by Dan Sperling entitled "Ethics of Helping Terminally Ill to Die." The article points out that a recent panel of top physicians has concluded that it is not immoral for doctors to help terminally ill patients commit suicide. The panel was convened by the Society for the Right to Die.

Its report appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Sidney H. Wanzer of the Harvard Law School Health Services, the main author of the report, made this statement:

"Our goal is comfort and the relief of pain and suffering, so the patient can have a peaceful death." This view sounds good, and was used by Hitler as well.

Their conclusions were that it is ethical for doctors to help patients commit suicide by prescribing drugs and telling them what dose would be lethal. The conditions under which such practices would be condoned were described as "terminal, their outlook hopeless and their depression untreatable."

Terminal patients would be given painkillers to make them comfortable, regardless of the risk of drug addiction or negative health consequences.

Dr. Jan van Eys, chairman of pediatrics at the University of Texas School of Medicine in Houston, Texas, gave another view of the proceedings: "I don't think that is an appropriate role for a physician-to terminate the life of another person deliberately."

In Exodus 4:11 we read God's answer to Moses when he made excuses as to why he could not be God's spokesman to confront Pharaoh of Egypt:
"Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?"

Physical handicap does not make a person less than a person. Physical suffering or handicap is never a reason for taking a person's life. Deuteronomy 32:39 says:
Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal.

The issues of life and death are in the hands of God, according to the Bible. In 2 Kings 5:7 the king of Israel responded to a letter from the king of Syria about the leprosy of Naaman, his commander of the army of Syria. He said, "Am I God, to kill and make alive, that this man sends a man to me to heal him of his leprosy?"

Hannah, the mother of Samuel the prophet, said in 1 Samuel 2:6, "The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up."

The Law of Moses contains restrictions upon the exercise of the death penalty even when capital crime is involved. Deuteronomy 17:6 says, "Whoever is worthy of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses, but he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness."

No one person has the right to take another person's life, including the person who wants to die. Suicide is a selfish act, rooted in our failure to trust God and to leave matters of life and death in His hands. Suicide is always harmful to one's friends and family.

The arguments of euthanasia advocates are clearly rooted in a belief that physical suffering serves no useful purpose. As long as a person can live without pain and suffering, he or she deserves to live; but if the suffering becomes acute and unbearable, then the person should be allowed or instructed to end his or her own life. But the Bible teaches that suffering serves many useful purposes and develops our character in ways that nothing else can do.

When everything was going wrong for Job and his suffering increased, even his own wife said to him (Job 2:9), "Do you still hold to your integrity? Curse God and die!" That is euthanasia in simple terms: Have nothing to do with a belief in God, and go ahead and die!

Job answered her (Job 2:10):

You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity The Bible comments, "In all this Job did not sin with his lips."

Job gave a marvelous analysis of his suffering and the issue of taking his life in Job 27:2-6:
As God lives, who has taken away my justice, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, as long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. Far be it from me that I should say you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.

What a testimony! As long as the breath of God was in his nostrils, he would trust the Lord. He left the issue of his death in the Lord's hands and would have none of the counsel of wife and friends that his condition warranted suicide or euthanasia. In Job 42:12 we learn that God used all of Job's suffering in a wonderful way and that He richly rewarded Job for his faithfulness during that period of time in his life: "The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning."

Every person, regardless of age, abilities, handicaps, or disease, is deserving of our profoundest care and respect. The issue is clear: It is the sanctity of human life, not merely the quality of one's life.

WHAT SHOULD BE OUR RESPONSE?

The right-to-life issue is affecting all other issues that trouble our nation during its current moral crisis. If a moral revival is to take place, then the following principles must be re-established in all facets of American life and understanding:

1.	God created human life.
2.	Human life begins at the moment of conception.
3.	Every person has value regardless of age, appearance, abilities, illness, or physical handicaps.
4.	People are more important than animals and plants.
5.	Human life is sacred and should never be taken by other human beings except by due process of law for capital crimes.
6.	Abortion is the taking of a human life and is an act of murder.
7.	God loves people and will forgive us of our sins.
8.	Adoption of unwanted babies should become the goal and dedication of a compassionate society.
9.	Care of the sick and elderly must be strengthened and supported no matter what the costs or personal inconvenience.
10.	Life has meaning and purpose because we were made in the image of God, and were designed to worship and glorify Him in all that we think, say, and do.

Look at the Bible on the issue of abortion……..IT IS CRYSTAL CLEAR!

A teacher gave the following situation to a class of students. How would you advise a mother who was pregnant with her fifth child based on the following facts.

   •  Her husband had syphilis.
   •  She had tuberculosis.
   •  Their first child was born blind.
   •  Their second child died.
   •  Their third child was born deaf.
   •  Their fourth child had tuberculosis.

The mother is considering an abortion. Would you advise her to have one? In view of these facts, most of the students agreed that she should have an abortion. The teacher then announced, If you said 'yes' you would have just killed the great composer Ludwig Von Beethoven!

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Charles McCarry can claim a varied career. In addition to being the author of The Tears of Autumn and The Last Supper, he served as assistant to the Secretary of Labor in the Eisenhower cabinet and has done two stints in the CIA. But he almost wasn't born. Says McCarry, "My mother became pregnant with me at the age of 39. She had nearly died while giving birth to my only sibling. Her doctor, who believed the second pregnancy was a serious threat to her life, advised an abortion. The advice made sense, but my mother refused to accept it. Just before she died at age 97, I asked her why. She replied, "I wanted to see who you were going to turn out to be." In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, quoted in Feb. 1990, Reader's Digest.