The definitions of being human

There has been a lot of talk lately about reproductive rights and personal autonomy. Since the Dobbs decision, the issue of reproductive rights, or specifically abortion, has been thrown back to the people. This issue strikes at the core of what it means to be a human being, so I urge you to think beyond the slogans and to think more deeply about the issue as “we the people” are now responsible for the answer.

Human beings are embodied beings, meaning that our bodies are more than just a biological machine that we inhabit, they are in a real sense us. Through our lives our bodies change. In our youth, the changes are largely positive-we get stronger, bigger and our mental capacities increase. As we age, the changes are often negative-we get weaker, still bigger and we suffer mental decline.

As embodied beings, we are either male or female. If you are female, your body is designed, for a portion of your life, to conceive and nurture life. If you are male, your body is design to participate in the conception of life. When a man and a woman have relations, their bodies are designed to bring another human being to life. Think about it, this is a miracle.

This miracle of a human starts life with the body of a fertilized egg. Destroy that egg and you have destroyed a human body and therefore a human life. Denying that human life “personhood,” as if the two can be separated, is the same moral error that justified slavery and the Holocaust.

Mark Bodett

Wheaton