I dont think Ive ever come across an op-ed that was so obviously wrong but led with claims that are so obviously true.
Writing in the Los Angeles Times, a science writer and artist named Margaret Wertheim opens by noting that the reality of a pregnant woman does not fit into the system of categorization thats long been the de facto standard for Western culture.
This checks out.
She goes on to say that in modern Western philosophy, a person is conceived of as an entity with independent intellectual agency.
As the kids say today, facts.
But then things get weird. Wertheim insists that modern philosophers like Descartes who famously said, I think therefore I am were simply translating into secular terms the view of the Catholic Church. And this view is that human being-ness is predicated on an individual self with free will, and thus the capacity to distinguish between right and wrong.
She then does the math. In light of our post-Dobbs debate: the fetus which is described as a small bunch of cells, clearly doesnt have independent intellectual agency, free will, or the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Abortion debate over, right?
The problem, Wertheim argues, is that pro-lifers who claim that the fetus is a person are going back to a medieval vision of the human person, one which the modern Western philosophical tradition reacted against.
But then things get even stranger. She moves to undermine her own argument by noting that the mother-fetus relationship stands outside Western obsessions with individuality and that a mother bearing a child is at once an individual and collective.
To be clear, the traditional Catholic view of the human person is that we are created as individuals-in-relationship, not only with our mother from the very moment we become a member of the Homo sapiens family (which every embryology textbook in the world teaches begins at fertilization) but with God, our family, other human beings, and all of creation. This anthropologic vision of radical relationship has at least 16 centuries of Christian Trinitarian thought behind it.
This is one reason feminist theologians have emphasized the analogy drawn between the bond of the pregnant woman with her baby and the intimacy of our relationship with God.
The fact of radical relationship, however, does not negate the individuality of those who are in such a relationship. This is one important difference between Christianity and eastern religions, which claim that individuality is an illusion.
The three persons of the Trinity are still individual persons. We are still individuals in our intimate relationship with a God we call Abba or Daddy. And the prenatal human remains an individual even as she has a nearly unimaginably intimate relationship with her mother.
Yes, they share an organ (the placenta); yes they exchange cellular tissue; yes, what the mother eats, drinks, smokes, and even speaks dramatically affects her baby. This is clearly a relationship unlike any other.
But the child is also an individual member of the species Homo sapiens. She has her own separate genetic code. She very often has a different blood type. She develops a four-chambered heart that pumps blood only six weeks after fertilization. If a hormone isnt released during pregnancy, the mothers immune system will attack the prenatal child as an individual separate and different from the mother.
So a Catholic understanding far from suffering from its pre-modern view of the human person is able to account for both the individuality and radical relationship involved in pregnancy precisely because its view of the human person comes out of its ancient and medieval reflections on the Trinity. Reflections that are not beholden to the idea that a human being is a thinking thing with free will. Indeed, those capacities dont develop until well after birth.
Anyone who wants to totally subsume those involved in the radical relationship of pregnancy as nonpersons are missing something essential about the relationship: both mother and baby exist as individuals and both have a right to life. This is one reason why pro-lifers need to do a much better job explaining (in the face of often cynical attempts to suggest otherwise) that in life-threatening situations, medical intervention to save the mothers life is the top priority.
But it also means that any polity that makes the prenatal child with a beating heart into a nonperson is participating in what Pope Francis calls throwaway culture. People use dishonest language like small bunch of cells to ignore or distract from the individuality of the child in order to make her easier to discard as a being who simply doesnt have a moral status.
As pro-life feminists have pointed out for decades, the fact that throwaway culture used to do this to women indicates that the ideology behind abortion rights has merely redistributed the oppression to another class of human beings.
Happily, a Catholic vision of the human person stands ready to honor both the individuality of the mother and baby as well as their radical relationship by working for prenatal justice, saving the life of her mother, and insisting that the broader community support their familial relationship with substantial resources.
Is it such a shame that the Church, which catechized Wertheim as a child, apparently didnt pass this wonderful vision of the human person on to her. If we had, she would have written a very different op-ed, one that honors the full individuality of mother and child in the midst of a beautifully radical relationship.
See the rest here:
The LA Times gets abortion and the Church dramatically wrong - Angelus News
- World Embryology Day: Know the world of baby scientists, and how this can impact the success rate of your IV.. - ETHealthWorld - August 5th, 2024 [August 5th, 2024]
- ESHRE Ferti Job Hub: A New Initiative for Employers and Job Seekers in Human Reproduction and Embryology - ESHRE - June 1st, 2024 [June 1st, 2024]
- Understanding Synthetic Embryology and Its Implications for Healthcare - Medriva - February 13th, 2024 [February 13th, 2024]
- These are the six things to think about before freezing your eggs - Daily Mail - May 5th, 2023 [May 5th, 2023]
- Merck Foundation CEO and Liberia First Lady Report the Impact of Their Long-Term Partnership to Transform Patient Care in Liberia - Devdiscourse - May 5th, 2023 [May 5th, 2023]
- USask researcher aims to revolutionize human-assisted reproduction - USask News - May 5th, 2023 [May 5th, 2023]
- IVF works for the lucky few. After a decade, I finally realised I wasnt one of them - The Guardian - May 5th, 2023 [May 5th, 2023]
- When your mother's not your mother and the problems of ... - The Tablet - May 5th, 2023 [May 5th, 2023]
- On World Veterinary Day Let us Celebrate the Diversity of the Noble ... - Rising Kashmir - May 5th, 2023 [May 5th, 2023]
- Can exercise help with Endometriosis? - EchoLive.ie - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Fertility expert shares the seven things you need to know before freezing your eggs - The Mirror - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Arlington and Alexandria Bring Home the 4-H Ribbons - Virginia Connection Newspapers - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- PINNACLE FERTILITY ANNOUNCES THE PROMOTION OF BETH ... - PR Newswire - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Delay in early development of the embryo associated with likelihood of miscarriage - News-Medical.Net - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Rumi Scientific Appoints Allen A. Fienberg, Ph.D., as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of - EIN News - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority consults on proposed ... - Solicitors Journal - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- Abortion may be legal in Argentina but women still face major obstacles - BBC - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- Scientists urge pregnant women to avoid using plastic bottles - Daily Mail - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- Precongress courses at ESHRE23 characterised by practicality and ... - ESHRE - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- Couple's Child Has Deadly Cancer Gene Thanks to IVF Clinic's ... - The Daily Beast - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- Three-parent baby technique could create babies at risk of severe disease - MIT Technology Review - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- UK ministers urged to consider changing law to allow genome editing of human embryos: Report - WION - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- Surrogacy: the strict approach to consent - Lexology - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- In politics, there's no such thing as private faith - The Times - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- Delayed motherhood: Why more women are opting to freeze their ... - Eve Magazine - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- National Science Day & Rare Disease Day Observed At ILS ... - Ommcom News - March 6th, 2023 [March 6th, 2023]
- Comparative Embryology - Developmental Biology - NCBI Bookshelf - October 20th, 2022 [October 20th, 2022]
- A guided route - The Hindu - October 20th, 2022 [October 20th, 2022]
- How infertility drove me into reproductive medicine | The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News Guardian Woman - Guardian Nigeria - October 20th, 2022 [October 20th, 2022]
- Quran and the Modern Science - Brighter Kashmir - October 3rd, 2022 [October 3rd, 2022]
- Jehangir Hospital launches state of the art IVF centre with best facilities - Devdiscourse - October 3rd, 2022 [October 3rd, 2022]
- Dead fish breathes new life into the evolutionary origin of fins and limbs - EurekAlert - October 3rd, 2022 [October 3rd, 2022]
- Merck Foundation Together with African First Ladies Mark 'World Heart Day 2022' - The Week - October 3rd, 2022 [October 3rd, 2022]
- THE CASE FOR INVAGINATION #4 Comes to The Mass Building - Broadway World - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Improving medical student recruitment into neurosurgery through teaching reform - BMC Medical Education - BMC Medical Education - September 9th, 2022 [September 9th, 2022]
- Embryology: Definition & Development Stages - Study.com - August 24th, 2022 [August 24th, 2022]
- Embryology, Ear - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf - August 24th, 2022 [August 24th, 2022]
- Fertility law and regulation need to changehere's how it could happen - The BMJ - August 24th, 2022 [August 24th, 2022]
- Indiana Family Health Council pushes for more sex ed after abortion ban - WTHR - August 24th, 2022 [August 24th, 2022]
- Letter writer disturbed by abortion support | Letters to the Editor | thebrunswicknews.com - Brunswick News - August 24th, 2022 [August 24th, 2022]
- How spilled coffee inspired a Boston sperm-testing startup - The Boston Globe - August 24th, 2022 [August 24th, 2022]
- Merck Foundation CEO Acknowledged Zimbabwe First Lady's Efforts as Ambassador of More than a Mother to Build Healthcare Capacity, Break Infertility S... - August 24th, 2022 [August 24th, 2022]
- Pig Development - Embryology - UNSW Sites - August 16th, 2022 [August 16th, 2022]
- Master of Clinical Embryology - Study at Monash University - August 16th, 2022 [August 16th, 2022]
- Letter: The inconvenient science of embryology - INFORUM - August 16th, 2022 [August 16th, 2022]
- Letters to the Editor August 13, 2022 | The Citizen - Ortonville Citizen - August 16th, 2022 [August 16th, 2022]
- Scientists Are Learning How to Help Coral Reefs Save Themselves - AAAS - August 16th, 2022 [August 16th, 2022]
- Hypospadias: A Comprehensive Review Including Its Embryology, Etiology and Surgical Techniques - Cureus - August 8th, 2022 [August 8th, 2022]
- Woman, 20, jailed in UK for taking abortion pills when abusive partner got her pregnant - The Mirror - August 8th, 2022 [August 8th, 2022]
- Woman gives birth to triplets with two-year age gaps between them - The Independent - August 8th, 2022 [August 8th, 2022]
- The earliest segmental sternum in a Permian synapsid and its implications for the evolution of mammalian locomotion and ventilation | Scientific... - August 8th, 2022 [August 8th, 2022]
- Egg donors in the UK: What it's actually like donating your eggs - Cosmopolitan UK - July 31st, 2022 [July 31st, 2022]
- Elon Musks Babies Were Conceived Via IVF And Surrogacy - Is It The Future Of Reproduction? - Forbes - July 31st, 2022 [July 31st, 2022]
- Handful of Tories declare themselves as candidates to replace Johnson - Morning Star Online - July 15th, 2022 [July 15th, 2022]
- Y Combinator-Backed Lilia Launches A More Convenient And Affordable Egg Freezing Offering Built For The Millennial Women - Forbes - July 15th, 2022 [July 15th, 2022]
- The End of the Beginning of the End of Abortion | Hadley Arkes - First Things - June 25th, 2022 [June 25th, 2022]
- Widower wins right to have baby using embryo created with his late wife - The Guardian - June 25th, 2022 [June 25th, 2022]
- How Does Comparative Embryology Support the Theory of Evolution? - June 25th, 2022 [June 25th, 2022]
- IVF: Three key requirements before you can have fertility treatment on the NHS - Express - June 25th, 2022 [June 25th, 2022]
- Harry Potter's World Similar to the Magic of Endocrinology - Medscape - June 25th, 2022 [June 25th, 2022]
- L'Oral-UNESCO For Women in Science International Awards 2022 - Benzinga - Benzinga - June 7th, 2022 [June 7th, 2022]
- Women, Witches, and Abortion: A Misguided Attack on Justice Alito - Public Discourse - June 7th, 2022 [June 7th, 2022]
- Updates to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act - Lexology - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- Widower in High Court fight over use of embryo created after IVF treatment - Forres Gazette - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- Australia Moves Ahead Cautiously With '3-Parent IVF' - WIRED - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- I donated sperm to father 47 kids but women don't want to date me - New York Post - May 6th, 2022 [May 6th, 2022]
- The Virtual Human Embryo - EHD - April 23rd, 2022 [April 23rd, 2022]
- Embryology Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster - April 23rd, 2022 [April 23rd, 2022]
- Buyer Beware: IVF Damages and the Value of Life - American Council on Science and Health - April 23rd, 2022 [April 23rd, 2022]
- The Stark Reality of Parents' COVID Deaths Grandparents Step In - The Washington Informer - April 23rd, 2022 [April 23rd, 2022]
- IVF Add-Ons: Why You Should Be Cautious Of These Expensive Procedures - SheThePeople - April 23rd, 2022 [April 23rd, 2022]
- Attitude And Perception Of Medical Students Towards Histolog | AMEP - Dove Medical Press - April 23rd, 2022 [April 23rd, 2022]
- Science in the Neighborhood Public Lecture Dr. Alexandria Forbes - Carnegie Institution for Science - April 9th, 2022 [April 9th, 2022]
- Scots mum's heartbreak as UK law stops teen daughter moving to America to join her family - Daily Record - April 9th, 2022 [April 9th, 2022]
- In Vitro Fertilization Market Analysis by Production, Consumption and Competitive Analysis Till 2028 Mianeh - Mianeh - April 9th, 2022 [April 9th, 2022]
- Embryology - Embryogenesis, Human Development and Stages ... - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Frozen Embryos: Who Gets Them? Who Keeps Them? Who Destroys Them? And When? - American Council on Science and Health - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- New muscle layer discovered on the human jaw - The Indian Express - December 28th, 2021 [December 28th, 2021]
- Demystifying IVF: Everything You Need To Know (Including Chances Of Success) - Momtastic - December 16th, 2021 [December 16th, 2021]
- RMA of New York Opens State-of-the-Art IVF Laboratory in Brooklyn, expanding access to fertility care to New York's most populous county - PRNewswire - December 16th, 2021 [December 16th, 2021]