This is what it’s come to

The protection of human life has to begin with the definition of what even constitutes human life, as we’ve known since Roe. Activists are grappling in courts daily, on both sides of life issues, to get laws changed. That takes considerable semantic engineering, as Sherry Tyree points out in this good post today on defining life.

It’s a snapshot of two breakdowns, one of a legal process. The other….of a culture.

Look at the section under “Person Defined”.

As used in sections 3, 6, and 25 of Article II of the state constitution, the terms “person” or “persons” shall include any human being from the moment of fertilization.

Here’s how the AP reported it:

DENVER (AP) – A proposed state constitutional amendment defining a fertilized human egg as a person [my italics] was certified Thursday for the November ballot, moving Colorado a step closer to an election battle over abortion rights.

Word kill.

“Fertilized egg” is not medically correct. Dr. J.C. Willke, president of Life Issues Institute, says “Conception (fertilization) consists of the union of sperm and ovum. The penetration of the ovum by the sperm, the integration and finally the beginning of the first cell division encompasses approximately twenty-four hours. The medical name for this single cell stage is zygote.”

Why would AP use the term “fertilized egg”? Dr. Willke says those who use this term “say it with something of a sneer…..Whoever heard of a fertilized egg being a ‘full human’? The very words ‘fertilized egg’ do not conjure up in anyone’s mind the full human being that this new biologic entity is. Rest assured, semantically speaking, they know exactly what they are doing when they continue to speak of fertilized eggs.”

Important question is, do the readers of these media stories know it?