When does life begin?

Humans have struggled with the answer to that question for many years. For Christians, the question has taken on even more urgency since the United States Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion. That the answer to this question has profound implications for morality and spirituality is disputed by almost no one.

In attempting to answer this question, it is interesting to note that most Christians are very selective in their use of the available evidence to arrive at an answer. Moreover, for many of them, the answer has to be definitive and dogmatic - in other words, there is no room for nuance or ambiguity.

From the scientific perspective, we now understand that the male and female gametes are living cells that unite to form a living zygote. We now understand that all of the information needed to generate a complete human being are contained in that zygote. Hence, we can certainly understand why some would arrive at the not so unreasonable conclusion that life begins at conception. Of course, from the scientific perspective, we must also deal with the fact that this life is completely dependent on the body of the woman who is hosting it. Indeed, for much of its existence during gestation, this life would not be able to exist on its own. And, finally, as I have mentioned before on this blog, science informs us that these lives are quite regularly terminated and expelled from the body of its host as part of the natural course of human reproduction (what is commonly referred to as a spontaneous abortion).

Of course, none of this knowledge was available to the authors of the Bible. Yes, God certainly knew all of it; but the men and women who wrote the book were completely ignorant of the science of human reproduction. This is an important fact to acknowledge in looking to the Bible for an answer to our question.

Unfortunately, many Christians have also tended to look for the answer to this question in the pages of the Bible with a pronounced confirmation bias. In other words, they are looking for information that supports the answer that they have already arrived at on their own. Without their even being conscious of them, old notions about human sexuality, birth control and paternalism color their thinking. And the question is further complicated by the notion that they have derived many of these underlying beliefs from the pages of that same book, the Bible!

Nevertheless, if we narrow our focus to simply answering our question from the Bible, we will be forced to conclude that there is room for a number of different answers to that question. Yes, most of us are very familiar by now with the favorite verses of "Pro-life" Christians; but are you familiar with any of the verses which contradict their understanding?

A favorite scripture of anti-abortion Christians is found in the Psalms: "I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou [art] my God from my mother's belly." (Psalm 22:10) Most of us have read that passage in Jeremiah: "Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." (Jeremiah 1:4-5) And this passage in Isaiah: "Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name." (Isaiah 49:1) Likewise, most of us are familiar with the story in the Gospel of Luke about Elisabeth's baby leaping in her womb when she was greeted by Mary. ( Luke 1:41)

But what about the many passages which state that life is defined by breathing? In Genesis 2:7, we read: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." And Scripture makes clear that this didn't just apply to the first human whom God created. In the Genesis account of the flood, we see just how important this concept of the "breath of life" is to God's definition of a living thing. We read: "And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die." (Genesis 6:17) "And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life." (Genesis 7:15) "All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died." (Genesis 7:22) And, finally, we have these words from the book of Job: "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life." (Job 33:4)

There are also a couple of other scriptures that are subject to various interpretations. In the Pentateuch, we have the hypothetical incidence of two men who accidentally hurt a pregnant woman while fighting. (Exodus 21:22-23) Some folks have suggested that this verse indicates that an unborn child is not given the same value as one who has been born, while others see this as proof that the unborn was just as valuable to God. Likewise, the genealogical accounts in the Pentateuch seem to imply that being born is a prerequisite to being considered a person - someone who is worthy of a name. (see Genesis 4:18,26; Genesis 21:3; Genesis 29:34; Genesis 30:20; etc.) Finally, we have an instance in the book of Ecclesiastes where it is recorded that a man who has experienced a meaningless life would have been better off to have been a stillborn! (Ecclesiastes 6:3-5)

In closing, my objective was not to change anyone's mind about their stance on abortion. Indeed, my own position remains that life begins at conception. It is, however, my hope that this mini Bible study on the topic will serve to make us all more tolerant of our brothers and sisters in Christ who do not share our views on this topic. For those who look to Scripture for doctrine and moral certainty, we must be willing to admit that it is possible to reach a conclusion other than the one espoused by "Pro-life" Christians. As the Apostle Paul once wrote: "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." (Romans 14:5)