Dear Friends,
It seems to me, if a fetus is not a human being, then you and I are not human beings. The concept that a fetus is not a human being, as purported by the anti lifers, is based on an age argument. That is, those who are not yet born are not human beings, because they are too young to be called such. Many would disagree and say the anti life argument is, they cannot live on their own outside the womb, but that argument is proven false by the approval of anti lifers for late term abortion, where the child is eminently capable of living outside the womb. Moreover, even if we accept the spurious argument a baby not yet born is not a human being, because they cannot live outside the womb, that is still at it’s core an age argument. The age argument if further bolstered by the fact that now there are anti life groups that claim a baby could be post birth aborted up to a year old. Therefore, they are arguing that age is the deciding factor of whether a human being, can be considered a human being, depending on age. The realization of this as their core argument should send a chill down the spine of every human being on the planet.
The logical extension of the age argument is, the definition of a person as human is age dependent, and a fetus is not human due to his or her age, and can be killed because they are not humans, ie, not old enough to be considered human. Moreover it follows that the older one gets the more human they must become. This is no different in kind then the outmoded claim that blacks are not fully human, due to the color of their skin being darker than others, so anyone who has lighter skin than another can by definition enslave that darker person. Therefore logically, any older person can kill any younger person, because the younger person is not as human. Both spurious arguments are based on a fictitious definition of what it means to be a human being.
So we have to ask ourselves, “what is humanness?” If we look at what are the defining characteristics of humanness, we can observe the extrinsic characteristics of humans, we are bipedal, we are largely hairless except for our heads and vestigial body hair, we have large brains, two arms ending in hands, two legs ending in feet, we have two sexes both of which are human beings, we sickle our young, we are mammals, we are sentient, we are omnivores, etc… But basically we know a human being when we see a human being. Nowhere in that list, or any other that you could come up with, is age a factor. That is like saying a white horse is not a horse.
Another factor that torpedoes the anti life definition of humanness is that they also seek to kill old people. They have dozens of nice sounding names, for the killing of old people like, death with dignity. So the anti lifers do not believe that age begets humanness, since people at both ends of the age range are subject to being killed. The anti lifers also have in the past, and advocate even today in some circles, for the killing of people who are mentally retarded, profoundly handicapped and insane. Therefore, we are left with one conclusion, that the anti lifers hold other human beings as less than deserving of their lives. Those that the anti lifers are offended by, for whatever reason, are subject to being killed, not because they are not human beings, but because human beings in their minds are not credited with any right to life.
The controversy surrounding the killing of a lion is indicative of the anti human mindset that pervades our culture today. For all the hullabaloo around the killing of Cecil the lion, ginned up by the media that calls itself unbiased, the fact remains, Cecil was an animal not a human being. Those that anthropomorphous a lion, claiming it has the same right to life as a fellow human being, are perverting the definition of human beings to suit their desires, in both directions. This is magnified by the fact, the media that calls itself unbiased, ignore the extermination of Christians from the Holy Land.
Now with the revelations, revelations that become more horrifying every new video that comes out, that Planned Parenthood is essentially torturing babies to death, so their body parts can be more profitable, the fact cannot be denied… they are anti human life. Not their own of course, they hold on to their own life with a white knuckled grip. They might call for the large scale systematic extermination of others, but they cherish their own lives like a miser cherishes gold. To be good is to follow the golden rule, do unto others as you would have others do unto you, to be a bad person, is to do unto others as you would not have done unto you. What can be said about someone who cherishes their own life, while at the same time are perfectly comfortable killing another? They are simply bad people.
In reality, a human being is a human being, no matter how old they are or deficient in any way, and so spurious arguments as whether someone is a human being, are mere hyperbole to defend the indefensible. Outrage over the killing of an animal, while at the same time ignoring a very real genocide of human beings of all ages, is to replace compassion for your fellow man with compassion for an animal. Replacing the empathy you should have for human beings for empathy for a mere animal is the means to justify a total lack of human heartedness. Those who force taxpayers to fund the systematic killing of human beings, are themselves anti life, lack compassion, empathy and human heartedness… and yet cherish their own lives, are by definition bad people… and neither deserve our votes nor their positions as leaders.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
