SHOW NOTES
Pro-Life, pt3
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 202
There is a lot of screaming from the liberals declaring that they believe the science. Reality is, they believe the theory, not actual facts. There really is a definite science that is consistent with fetal development.
Fetus is a Latin word that means little one. The word fetus is not an inhuman term, yet it has been made to mean that.
Science says that the origin of something is that something.
Does life start at conception? Everything starts at its conception point. Conception means the beginning of something. So of course, life begins at conception. When else could it start? After conception? No, at conception.
At the moment of conception, when a child is conceived, there are 46 chromosomes. The development of that child is the feeding of those 46 chromosomes. Every adult today is 46 chromosomes. (A down syndrome child is 47 chromosomes because they had 1 chromosome that split.)
At the moment of conception, our gender is defined. At the moment of conception, whether we are right-handed or left-handed, tall or short is determined. Time and nutrition then take place to continue to develop and grow that person.
At 5 weeks, there is a heartbeat in that child. If something has a heartbeat, it is very much alive. Most women don’t even know they are pregnant at 5 weeks. Most pregnancy tests won’t even work that early.
At 6 weeks, babies have toes, a mouth, and ears. From week 6 to week 7, they double in size. Within a week or two, they have joints that are able to bend.
In the early 90’s, when I would have debates about whether the fetus is a life, we didn’t have the technology that we have now to understand how a fetus grows and develops. The early argument was that it wasn’t a child until a certain gestational age (which was subjective). My argument was: if it wasn’t a child, what is it?
I was at Temple University in front of a big crowd with a professor. I asked that professor, “In the history of mankind, at any time or any point, has a woman ever given birth to anything but a child?” He looked at me like I had lost my brain. I wanted to establish the fact that a pregnancy has never turned into anything but a child. I even asked, “Does she ever give birth to a toaster?”
From conception, it is a child. I found that arguing the end point before arguing the details was very effective. It’s always going to be a baby. It’s always going to be a human. It’s always going to be a child. It’s always going to be made in the image of God.
Science tells us without equivocation that this is a child. The argument used to be that it isn’t a baby. They used to say, “It’s a blob of cells yet to be defined.” Now the argument is more sinister. The argument now is that it is the woman’s property and it’s the woman’s decision whether to take the life of that baby.
It is a baby human from conception. It doesn’t grow into a human. If it grew into a human, then it could grow into anything. Its seed is human; therefore, it is human. An apple tree doesn’t produce watermelons. An apple tree can only produce an apple. That is its genetics.
The science of human development in the womb is overwhelming. That child does not share any organs with its mother. The child has its own blood type. That baby is a unique and separate human that is housed in the womb of that mother. That child is not property of the mother or property of the state. It is a unique individual, created by God, paid for by the cross of Jesus Christ. That is why this is a gospel issue, not just a humanitarian issue.
Children are a gift from God from the moment of conception, despite the circumstances of their conception.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
