As I marvel at the different languages I hear when I travel, as I feel awe flying at 30,000ft in the air, as I appreciate the ease of communication across the world, I am similarly moved by a statement I came across this morning.

It’s in connection with the US Supreme Court’s decision in 1973 on abortion rights: “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.”  

I thought, “how is it humans have created the most amazing things in the world and they can’t see the obvious? How has it become the ‘difficult question of when life begins?’” Growth is the symptom of consciousness, the presence of life. When someone dies and is lying in front of us, there is no life! Life is over at that moment on the obvious external level  – there is no movement, no response, no consciousness. At that time we say – my dear friend is gone, has left us, is living no more (that ‘life’ is just heading off in a new direction is another blog).

If we flip the equation, then the minute a body begins to grow there is life. The minute there is even the tiniest movement of growth in the womb, there is a life. Life has begun! An individual’s life has begun! Why is that so difficult for smart, intelligent humans to get this? It’s not a religious thing, it’s the common sense ebb and flow of life in front of us. It’s pure and utter science at this point – visible and provable. 

Sometimes, for convenience,  we choose not to see what we don’t want to see. For the unborn child that is a painful destiny. For the adults in the room, that is a choice that has so much negative impact on our world, individually and collectively, that we would do well to take a better look at where life begins, and honor our role in creating and preserving it.