Judie Brown
Fungible human rights for negotiable human beings
FacebookTwitter
By Judie Brown
October 9, 2012

Somehow we, as a human race, have gotten it into our heads that babies are either something to be desired or not, something to be controlled or destroyed, or something to be tinkered with. Gone is the notion that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God and, thus, should be respected and cherished. Here are the days of doing whatever we want with our bodies and the babies created — no matter how — for whatever selfish reason we may deem acceptable. Today's commentary addresses this mentality. Read on for Judie Brown's insights.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone really thinks through what it means to be a human being anymore. There are so many signals being transmitted hither and yon these days that it makes the mind spin — and very few of these signals are grounded in natural law or even common sense.

For example, I read a headline asking, "Is Costa Rica Violating Human Rights by Banning In Vitro Fertilization?" The Costa Rican Catholic bishops have steadfastly opposed efforts to legalize IVF, while some Catholics — including Loyola law students right here in America — are calling the opposition to IVF "excessive."

Oh really? It seems to me the trampling of the human rights of human embryos is excessive. A human being is the only one who can possess human rights. The practice of in vitro fertilization trivializes the identity of individual humans by treating them as commodities — products to be accepted or rejected. This is so in spite of the fact that every human embryo is a human being.

Therefore, if anyone's human rights are being violated, it's the IVF-produced embryo. Banning IVF protects human rights by providing future children with their right to be created within marriage and through the conjugal act.

On a similar note, another headline read, "British Couples flying to US for Banned Baby Sex Selection." In plain English (pardon the pun), what we are told in the headline is that, like many American couples, there are British couples — singles and others — who not only want to become pregnant by clinical means but also want to choose the sex of their child, and possibly genetic qualities as well. The end result of this process is that more individual embryonic human beings will have their rights violated as they are killed for not measuring up to would-be parent desires.

Though such an idea would have once sent chills down the spines of the majority of citizens, today it is just another choice that is private and thus nobody else's business. Few appear to be the least bit disconsolate about it, including far too many preachers, bishops, and priests.

Perhaps this is why the story of a "lesbian couple, surrogate mother, and sperm donor" wrangling over who gets to exercise parental rights over a child created by the group got a big yawn from the press. Such reports rarely see the pages of major newspaper or make the nightly news.

Is it really just more of the same or has our understanding of human rights become so jaundiced that we simply couldn't care less?

Case in point. In Orlando, Florida — the home of Disney World — there was a special offer for discounted abortions at a local abortion mill. Dubbed "Kill your baby for free day" by local pro-life activists, "Scores of pregnant young women — probably scared, anxious or resentful — lined up at the Orlando Women's Center" to have their babies aborted by infamous abortionist, James Pendergraft, a man who has been sued for malpractice and described as "shady" in his practices.

Whose human rights were violated on that day and on every other day at abortion mills? The answer is clear — the preborn children whose futures are extinguished for the price of what is deceptively described as reproductive freedom.

At one point in time everyone had a clear idea of what human rights were and why they were important. The standard definition, "inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being," was understood by our founding fathers and those that followed for generations. But today this is not the case.

The term is bandied about, abused by those who do not recognize the preborn child as a human being and by others who, in a growing number of cases, deem other lives unworthy of being included in the category of persons whose human rights are unassailable.

It's time for Americans to do a reality check. When fundamental rights become debatable — or actually meaningless — what besides chaos can we expect?

© Judie Brown

 

The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)

Click to enlarge

Judie Brown

Judie Brown is president and co-founder of American Life League, the nation's largest grassroots pro-life educational organization... (more)

Subscribe

Receive future articles by Judie Brown: Click here

More by this author

 

Stephen Stone
The most egregious lies Evan McMullin and the media have told about Sen. Mike Lee

Siena Hoefling
Protect the Children: Update with VIDEO

Stephen Stone
Flashback: Dems' fake claim that Trump and Utah congressional hopeful Burgess Owens want 'renewed nuclear testing' blows up when examined

Linda Goudsmit
Chapter 10: Objective reality is required for a free society

Michael Bresciani
Gay is OK, but trans for kids is on the skids – Have Americans now become judges of evil thoughts?

Linda Kimball
Nihilism…all that exists is matter and energy: The worldview that caused the collapse of Christendom and Protestant Amer

Peter Lemiska
China doesn’t need a Trojan Horse – It has Joe Biden

Rev. Mark H. Creech
Revelation Chapter 22: Getting beyond doubt, Billy Graham’s example

Paul A. Byrne, M.D.
2024 International Gift of Life Walk – NYC

Cliff Kincaid
Biden’s bloody revolution for America

Victor Sharpe
Senator Schumer enters the annals of Shame

Linda Kimball
Prayer against evil, insane Babylon

Steve A. Stone
Letter to President Trump

Curtis Dahlgren
'There are a few good Swedes' (many forms of bias)

Jerry Newcombe
Bribing future generations for Marx?
  More columns

Cartoons


Click for full cartoon
More cartoons

Columnists

Matt C. Abbott
Chris Adamo
Russ J. Alan
Bonnie Alba
Chuck Baldwin
Kevin J. Banet
J. Matt Barber
Fr. Tom Bartolomeo
. . .
[See more]

Sister sites