Human fertilization and the SCOTUS

 The premise that “human life begins at fertilization” has never made sense. Human sperm and human oocytes are human life and they are alive prior to fertilization. Human life is a continuum, made possible by the continuity of the human germ line. Sometimes, the defenders of the fertilization add “unique human life,” but thanks to meiotic recombination and independent assortment, every sperm and every egg is unique, human and alive.

Biological ignorance nowithstanding, the “human life begins at fertilization” argument has two practical consequences: (1) it renders in vitro fertilization impractical and (2) it makes any woman who terminates a pregnancy at any point after fertilization an accessory to first degree murder.

 

In the case of IVF, the practical reality is the multiple fertilization products, each potentially capable of implantation and gestation to birth, are generated and frozen. At this point, hundreds of thousands if not millions of these “babies,” in the parlance of the pro-forced birth mob, are in suspended animation and will eventually have to be destroyed for want of money to keep them. But anyone who discards them will be, ipso facto, guilty of 1^st degree murder in the eyes of the reproductive extremists.

So far, the criminalization of abortion has focused on the doctors and clinics that perform or facilitate the abortion, and has exempted the woman who has arranged the termination. If I hire someone to kill my neighbor, designate the date and time of their death, and pay in full afterwards, would US law absolve me of any responsibility, just because I didn’t pull the trigger? Of course not.

And yet:

 

“For years, mainstream anti-abortion activists have avoided including discarded embryos created in the in vitro fertilization process in their crusade to protect every embryo, in part because seeking to curtail IVF treatment would be very unpopular. In Alabama, which has passed a near-total ban on abortion, embryos created through IVF are excepted from the law.”

 

And

“Asked whether doctors who perform abortion ought to be criminalized, she said: “We support the criminalization of the doctors who perform abortions. At this point we are not supportive of criminalizing the women. We would be supportive of criminalizing the discarding of frozen embryos or selective reduction through the IVF process.””

These people are nuts. A fertilized egg is not equivalent to a baby. But this is the belief system of the latest SCOTUS candidate.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/01/amy-coney-barrett-supported-group-fertilization