The S.L.E.D.

Acronym

• The unborn differs from the newborn in four ways, none of which are relevant to its status as a human being. Those four ways are size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency. The acronym SLED is a helpful reminder of those differences.

Size:

• The unborn are smaller then newborns, but since when has size had anything to do with the rights that people have? Men are generally larger than women, does that mean they deserve more rights? Is Shaquille O'Neal more of a person than feminist Gloria Steinem simply because he is larger? Clearly size isn't the issue.

Level of development:

• True, the unborn are less developed than newborns, but this too is morally irrelevant. A newborn, for that matter, is less developed than a toddler. A toddler is less developed than an adolescent. An adolescent is less developed than an adult. But we speak of all as equally human. Is a child of four, for example, less of a person because she has not yet developed sexually?

• It follows, then, that the ability to perform human functions is not a necessary condition for human personhood. Rather, a person is one with the natural, inherent capacity to give rise to personal acts--even if she lacks the current ability to perform those acts. People who are unconscious do not have the present capacity to perform personal acts. We don't kill them because of it, nor should we kill the unborn.

Environment: • True, the unborn is located in a different

place, but how does a change in location suddenly change a non-human entity into a human one? Did you stop being human when you walked from your house to the car? From the kitchen to the den? Clearly, where one is has no bearing on who one is. A child in the incubator of her mother's womb is no less a child then the one being sustained by neonatal technology. Ladies and gentlemen, you don't stop being human simply because you have a different address.

Degree of dependency: • If viability is what makes one human, then

all those dependent on kidney machines, heart pace-makers, and insulin would have to be declared non-persons. There is no ethical difference between an unborn child who is plugged into and dependent upon its mother and a kidney patient who is plugged into and dependent upon a kidney machine. Siamese twins do not forfeit their right to live simply because they depend on each others circulatory systems.

• We can see, then, that the unborn child differs from a newborn one in only four ways--size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency--and none of those differences are good reasons for disqualifying it as fully human.

Resources: Precious Unborn Human Persons (Koukl) and Politically Correct Death (Beckwith)

Should This Baby Be Aborted? You Decide.By Steve Ray

In the United States, there are many situations in which abortions are recommended, even encouraged by family, counselors, medical personnel and even religious advisors. Sometimes an abortion is recommended because of difficult circumstances and other times simply for convenience.

Here are four cases for you to consider. Should these babies be aborted?

You decide!

Case #1. There’s a traveling preacher and his wife who are living in poverty. They already have fourteen children. Now she finds out she’s pregnant with the 15th child. They are very poor and probably will be unable to afford a doctor’s attention. Considering their poverty, the excessive world population, and the number of children they already have, would you recommend she get an abortion?

• The Reality:Case #1: You would have just aborted the world-famous Methodist preacher John Wesley.

• Case #2. The grandmother is an alcoholic and the father spends his evenings out drinking in the taverns. His mother has tuberculosis. She has already given birth to four children. The first child is blind, the second child died, the third child is deaf, and the fourth child has tuberculosis. Now the mother is pregnant again. Given the extreme situation, would you recommend an abortion?

• The Reality:Case #2: You would have just aborted the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

• Case #3. A white man raped a 13-year-old black girl and now she is pregnant. Her family lives in extreme poverty; in fact, to survive, they often have to steal food. If you were her parents, would you recommend or require her to have an abortion?

• The Reality:Case #3: You would have just aborted Ethel Waters, the marvelous black Gospel singer.

• Case #4. A thirteen year old girl is pregnant. She is not married and lives in an outback area with very little money or resources. The man she hopes to marry someday is not the father of the baby, and he’s considering walking away due to the embarrassment of the situation. There is no hospital available nor are doctors able to give her medical attention. Would you recommend that she get an abortion?

• The Reality:Case #4: You would have just aborted Jesus Christ, the savior of the world

• I am a business man. In many business settings my peers comment: “I just don’t understand why we can’t find workers. The labor market is tough and everyone is short of employees. I just don’t understand.” I usually chime in and say, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if we kill off 1.5 million babies over the last twenty-five years that we are going to drastically reduce our employee base. What don’t you understand about that?”

•May God have mercy on our land!

• Since we are killing off over a million of our babies each year, how many other geniuses, artists, musicians, scientists, saints, and others have we assassinated? If the “pro-choice” (read: “pro-abortion”) folks have their way, the world may be deprived of a genius with the cure for cancer, the first female president, the inventor of new technologies, the saint who could have led us closer to God, the inventor of medical miracles, etc. In the lust of personal peace and pleasure, are we Americans killing the very people that God has sent to assist, teach, and save us?

"Moral issues are always terribly complex for someone without principles.“

- G.K. Chesterton

• Harrison Hickman spoke to the 1989 conference of the National Abortion Rights Action League, "Nothing has been as damaging to our cause as the advances in technology which have allowed pictures of the developing fetus, because people now talk about that fetus in much different terms than they did fifteen years ago. They talk about it as a human being, which is not something that I have an easy answer how to cure."

The Miracle of Baby Samuel• This picture is one of the most amazing

photographs that you'll ever see. It's a picture of Samuel, a 21 week old baby boy, whose tiny hand reaches out of the womb and grabs the finger of the surgeon who was operating on him, as if to say, "thanks doc, you did a wonderful job.“

Links to websites about Baby SamuelThe miracle of Baby Samuel Baby Samuel testifies before State Senate