When Does Life Begin?

Stem cell talk is everywhere. I want to approach this topic from another perspective. When does the Bible say life begins.

For those of you who don’t know – Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) is when the egg of a female has it’s nucleus (the yolk of a chicken egg) removed and replaced with the nucleus of another like being.

For a human, the egg is taken from a woman. The nucleus of the egg is removed. The complete nucleus from another person is transferred to the egg. The now completed egg is stimulated to grow. If this SCNT egg is placed inside a woman’s womb – it produces a baby.

The supporters of SCNT do not place this completed egg back into the woman. Instead they incubate the egg while it divides and at some point in time (about 200 cells old) they tear apart the developing egg and inject them into an ailing person as a treatment.

You can read more about this at webmd:
http://www.webmd.com/content/article/90/100668.htm

Stem cell research is one thing. Cloning human babies is another. Yet the two issues are so mixed up, we risk the worst of both worlds.
There are all kinds of stem cells. But the ones from which we can learn the most are the cells that make up an early human embryo. They're formed in the first 14 days after a human egg is fertilized by sperm or when a human egg has its own DNA replaced by DNA from an adult cell.
Scientists call this latter technique somatic cell nuclear transfer or SCNT. It's also the first step in cloning.


Another site to read is PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/miracle/stemcells.html

One way to do this might be to combine Thomson's stem cell work with the cloning technology developed by Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute. (In 1997, Wilmut and his team announced the birth of the cloned sheep Dolly, the first mammal cloned from the cell of an adult animal.) A somatic cell could be taken from the recipient individual, its nucleus inserted into an enucleated egg cell that is stimulated to begin dividing, and the resulting blastocyst-stage embryo then disaggregated to produce a histocompatible pluripotent stem cell line.

So far, everyone agrees how SCNT is done and what happens. Where they disagree is when is it considered living.

According to the supporters of this “therapy” life begins when the baby takes it’s first breath. If it has not breathed air– it is not a baby.

What does the Bible say?

Psalms 139:13-18
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

Human life begins long before the child starts breathing.

Ecclesiastes 11:5
As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

A bone is still a bone even while being formed in the womb.

Luke 1:39-44
And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; And entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

According to Scripture, Life begins before breathing.

It is morally wrong to intentionally take the life of one person to hopefully improve the life of another.

If you live in Missouri and you voted yes on Amendment 2, you are an accomplice to the murder of human life.

If you live in Missouri and you did not vote on Amendment 2, you are also an accomplice to the murder of human life. (If you don’t understand how not voting is really a vote, read the principle in action in Numbers 30:1-16.)

We will reap what we have sown. Work now to REPEAL AMENDMENT 2.

Until next time, Keep Studying The Scriptures.