Life Is What You Make it.
The intricacies of life can not be examined in a lab.
Life is what you make it
There’s good news and bad news, regarding this post. The bad news is I’m going to add my own insights as to when life begins and ends. The good news is I am not going to preach about abortion.
I’ve thought about this. How could a thinking Radical Individualist NOT think about this? What is life? Nice, basic question, until you think about it. Is life a beating heart? Is it brain function? Western science likes well-defined answers to questions. And I like Western science. But science isn’t the alpha and omega of everything.
Let me illustrate. In the final years of my mother’s life (in her eighties), she developed a benign brain tumor which somewhat restricted her ability to function. It wasn’t bad, but it was getting worse. The neurologist said that surgery would cure the problem, unless the surgery killed her. And if it didn’t kill her, there would be a long recovery period. My mother’s one consideration was, will the tumor bring pain. The neurologist said “No”. Mom said she would forgo the surgery.
Her heart was beating, her brain was functioning, she preferred to live what life was left to her comfortably and happily. She may have cut some years off her life without the surgery. That’s a lot of heartbeats, and a fair amount of brain function. I’d say she chose wisely. Quality over quantity. What science measures that?
I lost a close relative to cancer. He tried to hang in there, to prolong life as long as possible. But it got to the point that mere survival was all that he could hope to live for. And the pain became excruciating even with the drugs that made him barely functional. He gave up. Living wasn’t worth the effort.
The two most significant days in a person’s life are the day they are conceived and the day they die. (I’ll talk about birth in a minute.) No, there is no heartbeat at conception, but does that make the zygote less human? Is it the heartbeat that makes a human being a person? Brain dead people can be put on a machine and have their heartbeat continue indefinitely. Is that proof that they are alive? That was a legal issue a number of decades ago. Legally, death was determined by the cessation of the heartbeat. When medical technology became able to keep a heart beating indefinitely, long after the brain stopped functioning, a new legal definition of ‘death’ was needed. So, now it comes down to brain function.
I would humbly suggest that human life cannot be best measured in heartbeats. Well then, by what? Western science and Western law want a definitive answer. Well, tough. Life is trickier than simple definitions. Human life begins at conception. But that life is just a few cells. We can’t call it a person. So, does life begin at birth? Not hardly. We all have a birthday, and it is not really such a significant event in our life. The day before, we were in the womb. Then we were out. Neurologically and physiologically, there isn’t much difference. You could have been born a week sooner or a week later, and it would be irrelevant, except for when you celebrate your birthday.
No, birth is not a significant means of determining life. While residing in the womb, how much difference does any one day make? Not much. Two days? Still not much. But milestones happen. Heartbeats and so forth. But never mind the heartbeat, when did you become HUMAN? Rationally, there is only one answer. You became human the moment you were conceived. You will cease to be human the day your brain dies. There will be significant events in between, to be sure; otherwise, why bother to live? Some will unfortunately decide to take their own life, when they could have gotten through. Some will willfully give up life, because life for them is at an end anyway, and it’s just time to go.
Western science and Western law suck at dealing with any of this. Life is, well, personal. But it involves others. The law may be the last thing we want to consider, when we consider life. The same for science. We all have a heart, besides the one pumping blood in our chest. It is that other heart that we must consider, when we consider life. Perhaps someone else’s life will be in your hands someday. Consider the law a bit. Consider the science a bit. But search your heart. I have no idea what answer you’ll find there. It isn’t for me to decide, I have my own considerations to make.
Comments?
"The day before, we were in the womb. Then we were out. Neurologically and physiologically, there isn’t much difference. You could have been born a week sooner or a week later, and it would be irrelevant, except for when you celebrate your birthday."
Astute observations, as always. A newborn baby is the same neurologically as it's last day in the womb, only the stimuli has changed.
Funny how an unborn child is an inconvenience when wanted, but the most precious thing imaginable when wanted.