Column: Central question must be discussed

By Tim McEvoy

Fresh from the deliberate and unsubtle politicisation of the nation’s highest court, anti-abortion activists are exuberant over hopes that a South Dakota law could end up overturning the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade. They do not care that the landmark ruling has stood for over 30 years. Nor do they care that its overturn could threaten the legitimacy of the institution where a change in decision would clearly be due to a change in membership. For them, Roe v. Wade is a despised victory for their enemies, and it must be destroyed at all costs.

The problem with the abortion debate in this country is that it takes place at a highly superficial level. Both sides argue their passionate pleas on an emotionally charged subject, yet few seem to discuss the crux of the issue that fundamentally underpins their beliefs. The numbers of abortions taking place, the type of people that have them, or how much a foetus looks like a baby are all secondary, and largely irrelevant issues. The real issue is thus: When is a developing foetus a human person, who thus deserves equal protection before the law?

Those against abortion regularly espouse the claim that “human life begins at conception” as a matter-of-fact statement with little backup, but this is not strictly true. As far as I’m aware, human life began somewhere near the Great Rift Valley some 200,000 years ago. Technically, all individual respiring human cells are human life, whether they are attached to a larger entity or not. As for a newly fertilised embryo, while it may be a biological entity with new human DNA, this is also true for unfertilised gametes. An embryo being fertilised by no means makes it a person.

Neither is personhood started by many of the other significant events in foetal development. The point where the heart starts beating, toes reflexively curl, or when it starts to “look like” a child may all be interesting, but they do not confer the existence of new being. After all, we do not consider someone to cease being a person if they are grossly disfigured, lose their feeling from leprosy, or are halfway through a heart transplant.

Some claim that personhood is achieved once God enshrines a soul to the body. It is for this reason that conception is a handy point for religious types as a black and white event that can be easily labeled. However, this abstract and religious concept of a soul is not one that can be validated empirically, nor is it the only religious view. Jewish tradition only grants full human status at birth, in line with passages in the Hebrew Bible. Some Aboriginal beliefs teach that ensoulment doesn’t happen until after birth. While religious views must be respected, we cannot enforce views based on arbitrary and unverifiable belief systems on others. A policy based on science and reason must be found.

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The defining feature that makes us persons is our consciousness. In the words of Descartes, “I think, therefore I am.” Death is pronounced when the brain flat lines – when electrical activity ceases – regardless of whether other bodily functions are kept going by pacemakers or respirators. The same applies at the beginning as well as the end of a life. Until the first neurological activity begins in the cerebral cortex in the fifth month, foetuses are merely biological machines, incapable of thought or free will. It is the ability for self-awareness, for sentience and for sapience that makes us human, and it is not until this capacity is achieved that a foetus should be protected by law.

Should Roe vs. Wade be overturned, the abortion argument will take place in state legislatures, and thus even more extensively in the electorate. It is important that such a debate is conducted intelligently around the real issue. We must all use our human ability to think, and thus ask ourselves: What actually makes a person a person?

Tim McEvoy is an exchange student from the United Kingdom. He probably should have been aborted before birth. His column with Ben Griffiths appears on a rotating basis. He can be reached at [email protected].