The Definition of Life

Beacon UNIVERSITY

RESEARCH PAPER

THE DEFINITION OF LIFE

chc301

Human development

Faye Power

tyrone steele

HOLIDAY, FLORIDA

28 MARCH 2006

ABSTRACT

The definition of life is the axiom of the current abortion debate in the United States. This research paper will use various research articles by professionals in varying fields, and reputable internet sources in order to ascertain accurate definitions of life, death and abortion. The definition of life has become a fluid concept, skewed by apposing worldviews and political posturing. The point of this research paper is to determine, from a medical position, exactly when life begins, according to the definition of life within this research paper. This research paper will demonstrate its results from a Christian worldview.

The purpose of this research paper is to diagnose at which stage of fetal existence an abortion would be medically and rationally considered the termination of life, by defining the terms life, death and abortion as they are understood, biblically, medically and commonly.

This paper assumes the presupposition that humans are spiritual creatures as well as physical and explores these aspects of the nature of being human.

CONTENT

INTRODUCTION TO ABORTION

There are several classifications of abortions: Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) - opening the cervix of the uterus and emptying it; Self-help, or self-induced abortion; Dilation and Extraction (D&X or hysterotomy abortion) wherein the child is extracted from the womb caesarian style (the fetus’ head is surgically decompressed before evacuation); Dilation and Suction Curettage, or the emptying the uterus by suction using a special apparatus, and Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVE), which empties the uterus using a manual syringe.

Abortion is used in the United States often as a form of birth control. The negative affects upon the female are highly documented and disconcerting. Concerning the affects of abortion on the female, Webster’s Online Dictionary states that,

Some experts argue that abortion may increase women's risk of breast cancer and depression. However, the reason abortion 'increases' the risk of breast cancer is because if a woman does not have children near the beginning of childbearing age, that in itself increases their risk.

Depression, on the other hand, is a larger problem. (While the causes of depression vary, this article deals only with abortion-related depression). According to a study of 1884 women conducted by the National Longitudinal

Survey of Youth, women who did not carry their first pregnancies to term are 65% more likely to have clinical depression around eight years later.[1]

QUALIFICATIONS OF A LIFEFORM

The description of life is compartmentalized into two camps of thought. The biological definition of life (to be discussed later in this paper) focuses on the concepts of self-propelled motion, the ability to reproduce and the ability to grow. And while that description encompasses a broad category of things in our universe from atoms to ducks, much rarer are creatures with a sense of self-preservation, self-identity and emotions. Genesis 7:22 refers to those creatures as having the “breath of life.” This breath of life, accordingly, comes from God. While Genesis does not exhaustively define which creatures have this breath of life, at the very minimum it includes humans.

In attempting to describe the second category of life, that which is not defined by biology but in emotional and spiritual terms, the terms non-biological or non-scientific do not properly describe this kind of life. Therefore, for the purpose of demarcating those lifeforms with spirit and those lifeforms without, this research paper will refer to the second category of life using the term, pneumatary, after the Greek word for spirit, πνευματος. That is, those with the “breath of life” or spiritual creatures, which humans almost universally qualify as. It is not an official word, but the suffix –ary (with the qualities of) combined with pneumatos (spirit) should suffice for this paper.

The qualifications of a pneumatary lifeform are at least, but not limited to, the following attributes: 1) the ability to self-propel; 2) the ability to express individual

temperament; 3) the ability to distinguish a threat from a non-threat; 4) the experiential ability of either pleasure or pain; 5) the ability to express desire; 6) the ability to react to needs; 7) the ability to experience and react to fear; 8) the ability to cognate; the ability to sense its surroundings in at least one of five possible biological means; 9) the ability to experience emotion (defined below).

However, a lifeform does NOT require at least the following in order be classified as pneumatary: 1) the ability to self-sustain or self-exist; 2) the ability to complete quantitative cognitive processes; 3) the ability to sense its surroundings in more than one way (sight, touch, etc); the ability to self-determine justice from injustice; 4) an individualized nomenclature, or name. This is not an exhaustive list, but for the purposes of this research paper it will suffice. These are the more common misconceptions of what “personhood” consists of, concerning the topic of abortion. They are not requirements for personhood, nor requirements of a spiritual creature, as there are many living people who do not possess some of these attributes.

One of the aforementioned aspects of personhood, one of the qualifications of a pneumatary, is emotion. Humans are emotional beings by nature. Emotion could be defined as a series of interactive responses dependent upon external input and influences. Merriam-Webster defines emotion as “the affective aspect of consciousness” and as “subjectivity experienced physiologically, involving changes that prepare the body for reaction.” A pneumatary lifeform has this qualification as well.

There are three basic stages of prenatal development: 1) Germinal, 2) Embryonic and the 3) Fetal stage. The germinal stage begins with conception as a fertilized egg called a zygote, with cell division between twenty-four and thirty-six hours after conception. The zygote is merely a collection of molecules formed into a cell. In biological terms this collection of molecules, a simple cell, is life inasmuch as a blood cell is life, or a bacterium is life or a germ is life. But for the purposes of determining when an unborn child can be classified as human, a zygote does not have the qualifications of a pneumatary lifeform, a fully-qualified human who has been given the “breath of life” from God and has a clear identity or personhood. Therefore, it cannot be considered human or alive as a human at this stage.

The zygote becomes a blastocyst after a short time, consisting of an ectoderm, which will become the skin and nervous system, the endoderm, which will become the digestive and respiratory systems, and the mesoderm, which will become the muscle and skeletal systems. The blastocyst can only be classified as life only in biological terms, due to a lack of qualifications that would identify a pneumatary lifeform.

In the next stage the Embryonic, still no more than a mass of cells that form an outline of a human, the blastocyst experiences morphogenesis, which is the reshaping of the embryo into definitive parts of the body, albeit not yet functional. At this stage the embryo is called a blastula: a hollow ball with an inner cell mass off to one side. There are several sub-stages of this stage, which are not suitable for exploration for this research paper. However, it is important to note that this stage ends with the formation of some organs, the beginnings of legs, arms and digits, nearing the second month of gestation. An embryo at this stage has never been recorded medically as having any of

the qualifications aforementioned of a pneumatary lifeform. Therefore, it has likely not yet obtained the “breath of life” from God, mentioned in Genesis. And though it could (and has been) argued that the embryo at this stage is technically alive, it is still merely a non-functional collection of cells. It could not function as a viable unit in any respect. It could not fulfill the aforementioned qualifications of a pneumatary lifeform.

The final stage, fetal, begins after the near completion of cell differentiation. At this stage the neural network connects to the brain, sex organs appear and the majority of the physical growth occurs. This stage begins during the third month of gestation and ends at birth. During the third and fourth months the skin is refined, eyelashes and nipples form and bone is formed. The fetus has been known to exhibit movement, experienced as fluttering by the mother during this stage. The mother begins feeling full movement by the fifth or sixth month and the eyelids are fully open. The fetus is yet unable to survive on its own during this period. Unlike kangaroos, which continues gestation outside the mother’s womb, the human fetus cannot survive until the approximately the seventh month of gestation. Nevertheless, although it cannot survive it exhibits the full range of responses and abilities known to exist in all pneumatary lifeforms. At this point in development, the fetus is unquestionably human, according to all definitions available, and according to all known medical research. It could possibly even qualify as human during the fourth month, or second trimester of gestation. Prior to that the embryo is an in-process formation of a human and has no nerves, no spinal cord, no sensory-input devices such as eyes or ears or even skin.

Although it is unclear precisely when an embryo or fetus becomes filled with the “breath of life” it is undeniably clear that the six-month fetus displays the necessary characteristics of a pneumatary, according to all known research on the subject.

LIFE

In order to establish the definition of death (the termination of life) the concept of what life is must first be established.

The Free Dictionary online describes biological life in the following way.

A lifeform must exhibit all the following phenomena at least once during their existence:

§ Growth, full development, maturity

§ Metabolism, consuming, transforming and storing energy/mass; growing by absorbing and reorganizing mass; excreting waste

§ Motion, either moving itself, or having internal motion

§ Reproduction, the ability to create entities that are similar to, yet separate from, itself or consisting solely of entities that exhibit the quality of reproduction.

§ Response to stimuli - the ability to measure properties of its surrounding environment, and act upon certain conditions. This property is also called homeostasis.

It goes on to argue, however, that “mules and people who are infertile cannot reproduce and thus would not qualify as lifeforms,” and that “Fire and stars could be considered lifeforms” under these definitions, as would some software programs.[2] However, the problem could be resolved by stating that response to stimuli, and reproduction must be of a biological nature, and that motion must be self-propelled, and that at least four of the five qualifications are met.

Biologists state that organisms must,

1. contain molecular components such as: carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and proteins,

2. require both energy and matter in order to continue living,

3. are composed of at least one cell,

4. maintain homeostasis for some period of time.

Merriam-Webster defines life as such,

1. an organismic state characterized by capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction and

2. the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual. The first of these definitions focuses upon the physical, while the second upon the experiential or spiritual aspect.

The book of Genesis (2:7) states that God created life “from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” And in 7:22 “Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.” Theologically, the “breath of life” likely refers to the spirit. Alternately, reinforcing the partition between the breath of life and physical life, Leviticus 17:11 states that the “life of a creature is in the blood” as well as in Leviticus 17:14, while Numbers 3:4 refers to idols as “lifeless.” Uninterpretably, the Bible maintains a holistic and unrefined definition of life as being both bodily and spiritual.

DEATH

The definition of death is at the heart of the issue of life. For, without the definition of death the opposite definition cannot exist. From a spiritual position, death occurs when the spirit leaves the body, which cannot be scientifically demonstrated. Cryonics proponents have a different definition of death, “Cryonics is the science of

cryopreserving and caring for terminal patients after contemporary medicine can no longer treat them effectively.”[3] In other words, those who would be declared dead by the medical institution are still classified as patients by cryonics. The quandary that this concept results in is regarding the separation of spirit and body. Exactly when and why does the spirit separate from the body? Does the spirit separate upon lack of functionality or simply upon disuse of the body? In some cases, such as brain-death while the rest of the body continues to function, are difficult to diagnose regarding the separation of the spirit and body. In any case, if the spirit has already departed, can the body survive without the spirit if, as cryonics hopes, the body can be resuscitated centuries from now?

In the Bible, Job 14:22 mentions that “But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.” According to the Talmud, this is based on the disfiguration of the face to a point of being unrecognizable. In the first century A.D., rabbinic commentaries (such as Genesis Rabbah 100:7, Leviticus Rabbah 18:1; Ecclesiastes Rabbah 12:6) expressed that the spirit permanently departed from the body after three days. Prior to three days the spirit would constantly attempt to re-enter the body.

Until three days [after death] the soul keeps on returning to the grave, thinking that it will go back [into the body]; but when it sees that the facial features have become disfigured, it departs and abandons it [the body].[4]

The current medical definition of death strictly involves brain cessation, regardless of the body’s ability to sustain itself, although some countries still maintain that bodily cessation is death. Merriam-Webster defines death as “a permanent cessation of all vital functions.”

Bruce Miller is a Professor of Philosophy at Michigan State University:

If there is anything that has been clearly resolved in the area of medical ethics, it is a new definition of what it is to be dead. The old legal medical definition of death was cessation of heart beat and respiration. The new universally accepted definition of death is the cessation of total brain function.[5]

An article in “Cryonics.Info,” Definitive Information on Cryonics, states, “Death is an ambiguous process in which a body can collapse into stillness and silence and be considered dead, although most of the organs and cells of the body continue to live for a time.” He continues on the definition of brain death:

If the body is only recently declared deceased, many of the still living organs can be removed and transplanted, while the brain quickly decays. This decay begins once oxygenated blood stops reaching the brain in adequate amounts (this is called "ischemia", the condition suffered by tissues and organs when deprived of adequate nutrients and oxygen carried in blood). Though people are not always brain dead when they are declared dead, the brain will eventually die without life-support from the rest of the body or from life-support technology.[6]

All definitions of death considered, true death occurs when the body, including the brain, has physically decayed after cessation to a point that resuscitation is no longer possible. It may take several days for this to occur. Conclusively, concerning the destruction of a fetus via abortion, regardless of its stage of development, the body of the

fetus is no longer able to function after any type of abortion. Therefore, it is by all definitions dead. If prior to that, by all reasonable measures, the fetus was considered living, then the destruction of a fetus, resulting in death, is the destruction of life. By any legal standard, the destruction of human life is a capital crime. This concept is the hub of the abortion conflict. It is the admission of the anti-abortion movement that the fetus is alive, and that destroying the fetus is an act of murder. The pro-abortion movement denies this concept.

ABORTION

The definition of abortion, according to Webster’s Online Dictionary is “the deliberate early termination of pregnancy, resulting in the termination of the embryo or fetus.”[7] If the word abort means to desist, cease or terminate then to abort a human life is to terminate the process of living, at whatever stage. However, for the purposes of this paper, the concept of human life cleaves specifically to the stage of development that exhibits any or all of the qualifications of a pneumatary lifeform, or when it obtains “personhood.” So we must identify the exact stage at which personhood occurs, as a spiritual or sovereign human being according to all measurable standards.

In October of 1999 the Irish Independent newspaper (http://www.independent.ie) told the story of a 21-week-old fetus reaching out from an evacuated womb[8] during a

surgery, and grabbing the finger of the surgeon. It could be argued that this is an exhibition of numbers two through seven of the list of pneumatary lifeform conditions aforementioned in this paper. Given that this tiny unborn fetus was reacting in even one of those ways it can be classified as pnuematary under those definitions, although it is only in its second trimester, or its fifth month. This should come as no surprise to those who adhere to the descriptions of a pneumatary lifeform within this research paper.

Abortion clinics have become mass production workshops in America, with the major of patients being unmarried women in their mid-twenties who are economically disadvantaged. In 2002, there were 1.29 million abortions of children. 88% of those were in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, or the first trimester.[9] Nearly a quarter of all pregnancies end in abortion according to the Guttmacher Institute.[10] This does not include the pregnancies terminated by use of Mifepristone, or the abortion pill, which neared 100,000 in 2001. That’s a phenomenal rate of infancide (or embryonic cessation). However, the number has been declining steadily since 1980. The risk of maternal death during abortion increases with the length of pregnancy. During the first 2 months of pregnancy one out every million woman has died from an abortion. The risk increases exponentially at one out every 29,000 after four months of pregnancy, and one out of every 11,000 after five months.[11]

The term infancide has been viewed as political positioning by the pro-abortion movement despite its accurate portrayal of the abortion process. The details of an abortion are abhorrent. The term “anti-choice,” referring to the woman’s right to choose to have a baby after conception, is clear political positioning, masking the underlying theme of death. Statistically speaking, death is a guaranteed result of abortion. The death rate for infants involved in abortion is 100%, according to all definitions of death, life, pnuematary life and abortion.

The most common claim of the pro-abortion movement is that the unborn child is not yet a human being so it cannot be considered murder. They refer to the abortion process in highly unattached, clinical terms such as “interrupting” or “evacuating the contents of the uterus,” and even “removing post-conceptive fertility content.” It is an effective attempt to mask the true nature of abortion. The argument pivots on what is commonly referred to as “personhood,” that the fetus lacks such a quality. Yet that concept remains undefined in medical terms.

A new pro-life program, Option Ultra-Sound, has place ultra-sound devices in over 200 abortion clinics. These ultra-sounds are shown to potential abortion patients. Over 6,300 lives have been saved by showing the video of the unborn baby or babies in the womb.[12] Education about abortion has increased with the advent of the internet, and the knowledge propagation of this gruesome procedure is deterring more and more would-be patients from knowingly killing their unborn.

The partial-birth abortion process is outlined on the Concerned Women for America website (http://cwfa.org), but is applicable to most any abortion.[13]

1. Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby's leg with forceps

2. The baby's leg is pulled out into the birth canal

3. The abortionist delivers the baby's entire body, except for the head

4. The abortionist jams scissors into the baby's skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the hole

5. The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The child's brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed.

The evidence that this is cut-and-dry murder is overwhelming. There is little doubt of the aspect of infancide regarding this procedure. It is without doubt the killing of an infant, an unborn child who is a pneumatary human being with individual thoughts and desires, the ability to experience pain and pleasure and emotions, the ability to perceive its surroundings and react to them. It is a helpless child, a defenseless human who is dependant upon those around it, and, above all, who utterly trusts those who would have it murdered.

At the very latest, when the fetus reaches the five-month mark of gestation it becomes human. And the deliberate cessation of its life is murder by every stretch of meaning. This is not to say that it is not murder to destroy a fetus or embryo prior to this time. But it is to say that, according to the definitions within this document, at the very latest, it is a human with full personhood at the five month mark.

SUMMARY

Ezekiel spoke to the Jews of his time, pronouncing God’s judgment upon a sinful nation. One of the reasons he gave was the destruction of its own children. Chapter 16:36-38 refers to the blood of children given to idols,

Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children's blood, … I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring upon you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger.

Although in context, His anger was poured out upon Judah, and concerned the death of children for the sake of idol worshipping, the meaning can be immediately applied to our generation given the Bible’s constant value upon children, including the comments of Christ Himself. There is no question that abortion is murder by all possible definitions. “Women who … shed blood” in Ezekiel refers to the murder of children, although the passage was not referring to unborn children. Unborn children qualify as children (again, at the very latest) when they qualify as pneumatary humans. Even using the very non-conservative definitions provided in this research paper, children qualify as humans, at the very least, when they meet the criteria for a spiritual lifeform at the beginning of the second trimester, if not sooner, and does not utterly preclude the idea of mere embryonic material being deemed as human.

At the very least, destroying a forming human in the womb is a refusal of God’s will. Jeremiah 1:5 makes it clear that God has plans for the unborn child, even before conception (“before I formed you in the womb I knew you”). At its most extreme, abortion is the intentional destruction of a human life, perhaps even at the earliest stages of development. It is an unfortunate result of medical ignorance, and political propaganda. In all cases God can forgive. Perhaps our grandchildren will forgive us for allowing this atrocity to continue. Exodus 20, “You shall not murder” (לא תִרְצַח) is unambiguous and non-discriminatory.

ELECTRONIC MEDIA

Netlibrary.com “Roe v. Wade” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://netlibrary.com/nlreader/nlreader.dll?BookID=86636&FileName=PAGE_183.html#P20006B078830183001

Netlibrary.com “Abortion as a Reproductive Right” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://netlibrary.com/nlreader/nlreader.dll?BookID=86636&FileName=PAGE_15.html#P20006B078830015001

Netlibrary.com “Dialation and Extraction (D&X)” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://netlibrary.com/nlreader/nlreader.dll?BookID=86636&FileName=PAGE_63.html#P20006B078830063002

The Guttmacher Report “Lesson from Before Roe: Will Past be Prologue?” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/06/1/gr060108.html

The Guttmacher Report “Envisioning Life Without Roe: Lessons Without Borders” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/06/2/gr060203.html

ALCORE “Christianity and Cryonics: Questions and Answers” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/christianityandcryonics.html

[1] Webster’s Online Dictionary. “Abortion” Database online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/abortion; internet.

[2] The Free Dictionary. “Defining the Concept of Life” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Definition+of+life; internet.

[3] ALCORE. “Christianity and Cryonics: Questions and Answers” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/christianityandcryonics.html; internet.

[4] Biblegateway.com Commentaries. “Jesus raises Lazarus” Article online. (accessed 03/31/2006); available from http://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/?action=getCommentaryText&cid=4&source=1&seq=i.50.11.2; internet.

[5] Michigan Gateways. “Ethics and Values” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006) available from http://www.gateways.msu.edu/208trn.html; internet.

[6] Cryonics.Info. “Brain Death” Article online. (accessed 03/28/2006) available from http://cryin.secureid.org/stories/storyReader$35; internet.

[7] Websters Online Dictionary. “Abortion” Database online. (accessed 03/28/2006); available from http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/abortion; internet.

[8] Hoy Web. “Tiny Hand of Hope” Article online. (accessed 03/29/2006); available from http://www.hoyweb.com/faq/hand.htm; internet.

[9] Guttmacher Institute. “An Overview of Abortion in the United States” Article online. (accessed 03/29/2006); available from http://www.guttmacher.org/media/presskits/2005/06/28/abortionoverview.html; internet.

[10] Guttmacher Institute. “Induced Abortion in the United States” Article online. (accessed 03/29/2006); available from http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html

[11] Ibid.

[12] Focus on the Family. “Option Ultra-Sound press release” Article online. (accessed 03/31/2006); available from http://www.family.org/welcome/press/a0039853.cfm; internet.

[13] Concerned Women for America. “Partial-Birth Abortion Details” article online. (accessed 03/29/2006); available from http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=1296&department=CWA&categoryid=life; internet.