From: nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos)
Subject: Re: ABORTION: WHEN Does Human Life BEGIN?!
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 24 Dec 92 01:29:57 GMT

In <1992Dec17.184619.2900@cnsvax.uwec.edu> mcelwre@cnsvax.uwec.edu writes:

[I've added talk.religion.misc and alt.atheism]

>                     ABORTION: WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE BEGIN?

>               The debate about the abortion issue really boils down to 
>          a question of when human life begins.  Many "pro-lifers" are 
>          fundamentalist Christians but are unable to quote any clear 
>          statements from their Bible indicating that human life begins 
>          at conception.  [And most of them, especially the Catholics, 
>          are also against artificial birth control, which would 
>          PREVENT the unwanted pregnancies to begin with!]  They are 
>          apparently either ignorant of, or ignoring, GENESIS 2:7, 
>          which states: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
>          ground, and breathed into his nostrils the BREATH OF LIFE, 
>          and man became a living Soul.". 

I'm not clued into the fine points of these matters, so let me ask:
Does this mean infanticide is biblically NOT murder if it is done
before the baby draws its first breath?  I mean, after it is outside
the womb, otherwise I wouldn't call it infanticide.

Backing up :-) a bit: what portion of the baby must be outside the
birth canal before killing it is considered murder in present-day
America?  Does the answer change if it is a breech delivery?

>               This Biblical statement indicates that human life begins 
>          (Soul enters its new body) WHEN THE BODY TAKES ITS FIRST 
>          BREATH OF AIR OUT-side THE WOMB.  Therefore, if an aborted 
>          fetus's lungs are too undeveloped to breathe, or if an older 
>          fetus is biologically terminated INside the womb, then that 
>          abortion can NOT be called "murder", because NO Soul was 
>          present in the fetus. 

I tend to doubt whether the breath was invested with the same significance
that people nowadays attach to the word "Soul".

Considering how gullible the poster is about Edgar Cayce, about whom he
speaks in the present tense (when was the last time he talked to Edgar?
was the seance conducted by Whoopi Goldberg, perchance?), I rather 
tend to doubt *anything* he says in this particular post that I haven't
found out for myself.

His naive unqualified faith in birth control above (sheesh, even operations
to induce sterility aren't 100% reliable in that respect) also does not
speak well of him.

>               Another thing to consider is that each of us is 
>          surrounded by a protective energy field usually called an 
>          "AURA".  A few people, including the late Edgar Cayce, can 
>          actually see colored AURAs around people.  The Canadian 
>          scientist Frances Nixon developed a way to locate the boun-
>          daries of a person's AURA. 
>         
>               One of the AURA's main purposes is to shield out 
>          discarnate entities from a person's body.  If an AURA becomes 
>          weak, because of illness, injury, etc., discarnate entities 
>          can sometimes invade and cause insanity, multiple personali-
>          ties, etc.. 

>               THE AURA OF A HEALTHY PREGNANT MOTHER WOULD LIKEWISE 
>          PREVENT A SOUL FROM ENTERING THE FETUS INSIDE HER. 

Remainder of post mercifully deleted.

Peter Nyikos

Newsgroups: talk.abortion,alt.flame,alt.fan.kevin-darcy