Irish Bishops’ statement on Savita Halappanavar. Pure BS.

You must have heard about Savita Halappanavar, the Indian, who had a miscarriage but was refused abortion, because her foetus had a heartbeat. Now the Irish Bishops have released a statement. And what a load of bull shit it is.

PZ Myers covers the point of the arrogance of the bishops to give advice in an area they have absolutely no knowledge about. A doctor explains why their guidelines only expose their ignorance. So let me cover this point they make:

Some would claim that the unborn baby is less human or less deserving of life. Advances in genetics and technology make it clear that at fertilization a new, unique and genetically complete human being comes into existence. From that moment onwards each of us did not grow and develop into a human being, but grew and developed as a human being.

Let us play their game a bit.

First. If indeed a fertilised egg is equivalent to a human being, even without a heartbeat (heart beat begins 22 days after conception), is the “human being” considered to be alive during those 22 days?? After all, the doctor who treated Savita Halappanavar is quoted as saying they cant do an abortion because the foetus was alive.

Second. Going by their logic should an unfertilised egg or a sperm be treated equivalent to half a human being? Do they become half as important as a human being? Should we also be ensuring that no sperm or egg is wasted, because with advances in technology, every sperm and egg that you discard, you have killed what could have been a human being?

Look at the way they define a foetus “a new, unique and genetically complete human being”. Why is being genetically complete more important than complete in any other sense? I can call a corpse a physically complete human being (with all the organs in place). Will that be a human being (but that deserves far more respect than a fertilised egg)? Moreover, do they realise every cell in every human’s body is genetically complete, with all 46 chromosomes. It is only a matter of time before technology will let us extract a small drop of my blood and create my clone. At that point will these people say, blood should not be allowed to spill when you have a cut, hair should not be cut, nails should not be filed and that you should also not scratch yourself because you lose many cells (aka: genetically complete human beings) every time you scratch?

What nonsense!

The truth is these idiots know nothing about genetics or medicine or ethics. They just have their own dogma, and try to suit every technological advance to their own narrow definition of what constitutes life. It is scary to think they hold so much control on public policy. I am not saying religion should not have any role in public policy, but just that they should not have it any more than a Rajinikanth fan club.