Science and religion
As parents of a student son at MSU we read with interest the article in support of the abortionist Dr. Willie Parker. As a physician he is clearly aware that the scientific question of when life begins has been long settled and is agreed upon: conception. What is in debate is whether or not small human beings are to be ascribed legal rights. We need not fool ourselves.
The comparison of abortion, 1.6 million US lives/year who have committed no crime except for their location to capital punishment is a poor one. In 2016, 20 persons in the entire U.S. were executed after a trial and numerous appeals. If one adds to the victim number of 1.6 million infants their moms/dads affected by their loss, the number is staggering.
And yet, even 20 lives require great deliberation and to that end the recent popes have encouraged Life without parole as a merciful alternative.
Sadly, Dr. Parker concludes that science and religion are incompatible. We respectfully disagree. Science and faith are twin siblings. Often one takes on faith, inspired in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, what science later affirms. Prenatal ultrasounds are one such stirring example. Sonograms now affirm precisely at the time a woman suspects she may have conceived, the unborn child has a beating heart, 4 days after her “missed period.” Mothers’ and babies’ pulses are entirely different numbers! 2 lives! But we always knew that.
We would challenge Dr. Parker to offer women and men in a pregnancy crisis life alternatives that allow both patients to be loved and cherished. He sadly is well aware he participates in a homicide with each abortion and harms a second victim eternally, the frightened mother.
Let him instead reach out to both patients with love!
Gerry & Vic Gray-Lewis
Jackson
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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