Wednesday, October 3, 2012

On the Subject of Living Cells

Recently, maybe because of Mitt Romney, I've had some view of posts that I find to be morally reprehensible.   I'm not talking about anything pro choice, but those where people extol the virtues of a blastocyst. 

Getting a little technical here, take a look.
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/cellmovie.htm
At the end of this little bit of time lapse, you have a cluster of cells that's capable in the correct conditions of growing into a tiny human being.

Now let's take a look at this:
http://www.theledger.com/article/20120928/NEWS/120929363
At the end of this article, you should be enraged that this under-aged girl was "legitimately" raped (because that's the only way she could get pregnant), had such a shitty relationship with her family that she wasn't honest about however the hell it happened, and then carried a baby to full term and strangled it with her bare hands BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO.

So now, because she was uneducated, unsupported, and stupid - she has destroyed two lives.

News flash: 
Blastocyst !=  person.   
American 14 year old in the 21st Century != mother or even likely to be physiologically READY to nurture a growing fetus in her still growing body.

Legislation of a clump of cells doesn't just mean that you are just respecting the sanctity of life, or if you are religious that you are just acknowledging that there is a spirit, a personality, an unknown potential that occurs during fertilization.    You are also legislating that if a woman encounters undue stress and miscarries, that her husband has the right to have her prosecuted for murder.   Law is law; and this is the precedent you set.  

It is incredible, to be sure, whether you are a spiritually driven or scientifically driven person, that this feat of the body exists.   It is to be respected.   So are women.  Especially those who are less moneyed and able to figure a way to make the best of a pregnancy.  By every measure the most grave responsibility anyone can take is to become a parent.  Unprepared and uneducated to do so - you've not just screwed up the life of the woman without a choice to avoid it - you've screwed the opportunities for that child.   And let me know how the whole adoption thing is going for you, if you're of that vein.   Because I don't know too many people lining up to pick up the ill behaved, stunted children that are... now giving birth.

Until children are educated about things that make you uncomfortable, and have parents who are watching what the hell they are doing, the government 100% has the responsibility to ensure that things like Cassidy the 14 year old murderer have some way of not happening.    I bet you she'd have a lot less regret now if she'd had the education, support, and wherewithall to ask for birth control or the morning after pill to prevent implantation of your stupid precious blastocyst.    As another technical aside - the blastocyst is completely incapable of anything until after implantation, which is where pregnancy is defined.   If you prevent the implantation, you prevent pregnancy - so this legislation that gives the definition of life to "the point of conception" is profoundly scientifically incorrect and would make whatever percentage is the going rate of fertilized eggs that just didn't happen to implant - murder.

http://discovermagazine.com/2004/may/cover/article_view?b_start:int=2&-C 
And that rate probably hasn't gotten any better because of all us old birds with our old crappy eggs trying to have babies.


So for those who think I am not really considering or weighing out all the facts when I stand firmly in the corner of pro choice and reproductive education - please know that I am.   I am doing it more so than our politicians and many of my friends and family, whom I love dearly and do NOT want to argue with. 

But Cassidy, poor, ignorant, horrible Cassidy - well, now I can't keep my mouth shut.