Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
If a fertilized egg is a person, isn’t every woman whose uterine wall fails to implant one guilty of involuntary manslaughter?
If a fertilized egg is a person, wouldn’t every fertility clinic that discarded a frozen embryo be guilty of murder?
If a fertilized egg is a person, shouldn’t every pregnant woman be entitled to an extra tax deduction?
The scientific and legal ramifications of a constitutional amendment that abortion opponents want to put on
Backers of the amendment must still get 76,000 signatures of registered voters to place the measure on the ballot. Even if they succeed, passage is a long shot. The egg-as-person amendment may be aimed at getting the far right wing base of the Republican party to the polls in a presidential election. But the fact that anyone would propose such a bizarre idea shows how empowered extremists feel by a Supreme Court stacked by George W. Bush with justices who have shown a propensity to take away women’s rights.
The snares of the egg-as-person definition would not only strip women of just about all their personal reproductive rights, it could conceivably put them and their doctors in prison.
Dr. Michael Hall is an obstetrician and gynecologist who opposes abortion. He believes life begins at conception.
“I would be for that proposition,†Hall said of the constitutional ballot measure.
But even Hall acknowledges that the majority of his medical colleagues won’t support giving fertilized eggs the status of people.
The reason why is clear when you look at the impact on fertility clinics.
“If you throw away embryos,†Hall noted, “you could be charged with murder.
Fertility clinics routinely discard frozen embryos that clients didn’t need and have grown too old to be used. Those embryos are now the subject of a battle between Congress and the president over embryonic stem cell research. Denver Congresswoman Diana DeGette has crafted legislation – passed by the House and Senate and vetoed by the president – that would allow surplus embryos scheduled for destruction to be used to create stems cells that might help cure such things as diabetes and spinal cord injuries.
Under the egg-as-person amendment, using discarded embryos to help cure diseases would be a crime, too.
“The traditional abortion to save the life of the mother would become illegal,†added
A woman’s behavior during her pregnancy could also be subject to criminal charges or civil claims, Collins pointed out. An expert in constitutional law, Collins thinks the
Women could face potential criminal charges if they drink, smoke or use drugs – even legal drugs – while pregnant. Certain types of birth control would also become illegal, Collins said.
Remember emergency contraception? Abortion opponents claimed rape victims taken to Catholic hospitals shouldn’t be told about EC because it sometimes causes a fertilized egg not to attach to the uterine wall. Though most doctors believe pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg implants in the uterine wall, abortion opponents claim anything that stops the process is murder.
Constitutionally proclaiming fertilized eggs as people pushes the debate well beyond forcing rape victims to have their assailants’ babies.
Not all fertilized eggs attach naturally to the uterine wall. If all those eggs are equivalent to people, how do you handle their demise?
Cathryn Hazouri, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, views the proposed egg-as-person amendment as she would bad science fiction.
“Every egg would need a guardian ad litem (a legal representative to look out for its interests),†Hazouri told me. “What are you going to do, put a monitor inside the uterus?â€
Hazouri wasn’t being glib. She was being realistic about a push to impose standards of behavior on women.
When fertilized eggs are people, Hazouri said, “women’s reproductive rights all disappear. Women are forced to have children they’re not prepared for or don’t want. And sexual intercourse becomes only for procreation.â€
If that sounds like the far-fetched plot of a sci-fi novel like “The Handmaid’s Tale,†check out the
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
12 users commented in " Women’s Rights Disappear in the Brave New World Where Eggs Are People "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThis leads me to think of a brave new world made up of Lysistras in the millions. If women have no rights than they will have to withhold the > only thing of value they still possess. Think of it, an entire country populated by the children of rape.
People who oppose abortion believe (or say they believe) that human life begins sometime before birth. Also implied is that human life is somehow special.
The thing about belief is that it doesn’t require any proof. In fact, absence of proof is a prerequisite for belief — otherwise it would be fact. So belief is pretty handy. A person can believe *anything*. They could even believe that the earth is flat, or that the universe is only 6,000 years old, even though there is ample proof that both of those statements are false.
Belief has no role in a rational life, but I respect people who have beliefs. I just don’t think it’s right for them to impose their beliefs on people who think. If humans are somehow special, the superior creatures on Earth, it is the ability to think that makes them so.
Medieval religiosity using up-to-date political tactics. Ultimately, it is one more nail in the coffin of the religious right wing. Every time they try something like this their base shrinks a bit more. Good!!
“…sexual intercourse becomes only for procreation.â€
That, of course, is the ultimate aim of the Puritans among us. Don’t just make sex something to be feared and disgusted by, though that, too, seems to be OK. Make it something that might only happen a literal handful of times in one’s life, because they would like the consequences — legal, financial, ethical, emotional — to be so serious that no one, in any circumstance, would dare to engage in it.
Except with their pastor’s permission, of course…
Along with breathing, drinking, eating and sleeping, sex is a quintessentially human activity. We’re not just programmed for it (though we certainly are that, both males and females), we’re very, very good at it, as evidenced by the amazing explosion of human population over the past couple of millennia.
This amendment flies in the face of both biology and psychology, and in the process turns women into breeders. Think milk cows, thoroughbred mares, pedigreed bitches. If anyone needs evidence that religious fanatics are limited to the Middle East and Islam, they need only look at this proposed amendment. We have the American version of the Taliban right here, and they call themselves Christians.
I am a retired ObGyn medical doctor. I think women have a right to their own body parts. The question of where life begins certainly is not with an unfertilized egg-or for that matter not a recent fertilized egg.
I think special interest groups should stop telling the rest of us how to live our lives and concentrate on their own. Women have it tough enough in this society without their interference. This egg-person debate is totally insane. If this behavior is not stopped no one in this country will have any say in how they live their lives. If the governments make laws concerning every aspect of life we would no longer be a democracy. And if religion is the basis we are no different than the middle east. Who can say who has the “correct” religious beliefs if any at all.
Interesting Lysistra analogy. That should encourage men not to vote for this law!
I saw a huge group of “Christian” young people on t.v. this week gathered in Nashville, dancing and mass histrionics. It was reminiscent of Woodstock or a rock concert. But they weren’t stoned. Iw was more like Guyana and the Rev. Jones. They said their goals were the “big three”: public prayer (pro), gay marriage (anti) and abortion (anti).
Wouldn’t you think a group of “Christian” young people would want to do something constructive like building houses for Habitat for Humanity or something? Instead they were brain-washed, cult-like, to attend to those 3 things, to bully and harass others not like themselves. Isn’t that the way Hitler got started?
On reading about the young woman who apparently came up with this misguided amendment, I am saddened that she is not putting her energies into encouraging more available birth control methods or promoting adoption or a better foster care system. I believe this amendment has zero chance of passing but it is very indicative of how emboldened the radical religious right has become as far as imposing their views and their faith on the rest of us. Scary.
One issue that has failed to turn up in these discussions is that of belief and its source. While I admire the depth of some people’s beliefs, generally based on religious doctrine, they are nothing more. Beliefs are not knowledge. While one religion may claim that life begins at conception, and while scientists may say it begins when the fertilized egg implants in the uterus, another religion says life begins at birth. All are correct beliefs considering their context. None of them are knowledge. Is a zygote a human being? What makes people different from fish, gnats, or apes? Most of us call it the soul. When does that enter a body. Nobody has ever claimed to have found it inside a person. Is it possible that the soul is completely separate from the body? Some religions believe it is. Any effort to legislate when life begins will trod on at least one religion. The litany of legal issues you expressed will merely be expanded by one.
As a “flaming” liberal I would love to see this measure on the ballot. Let the Republican party be exposed for what it is-a bastion of wing nuts. If this amendment’s supporters want 6 of seven congressional seats, all state elected offices, plus 3/4 of the legislature in Dem hands, so be it.
If you don’t like abortion, don’t have one, plain and simple.
What’s next, a guy jacks off and gets charged with murder because his sperm didn’t go towards an egg? This is ridiculous and I think reading the proposed amendment actually made me dumber.
I do not want to live in a country where radical Christians run around bullying their BELIEFS [not facts.. BELIEFS] into the judicial system. No one has any business butting into a woman’s personal life, especially during a vulnerable time like choosing to have an abortion.
Why don’t they work on decreasing the outrageous numbers of murders occurring all the time involving fully developed, living people instead of fetuses?
Health Clinics in South Dakota…
Why didn’t anyone tell me about this blog earlier? Lol. Seriously, awesome work on this post (along with your other posts…) Keep it up!…
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