(Letter to the Editor - Graphic Illustration/MetroCreativeConnection)

Abortion stops a beating heart as the stickers say but that does not make it murder according to NKJV God.

Genesis 2:7 says “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 being.” Revelation 11:7-11 described dead bodies of the righteous that lay in the street: “Now after three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet …” Between those references “the breath of life” is a common phrase. See Ezekiel 37:9-10, 14. Later versions of the Bible may use the word “spirit” rather than “breath.” Before his ascension Jesus breathed on his apostles and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 29:22)

“Inspiration” is from Latin meaning drawing in spirit. Exhaling is “expiration,” departure of the spirit, or death. Our tradition of blessing people who sneeze arose in the Middle Ages (in Germany — Gesundheit!) from the concern that the spirit might be expelled from the body by the sneeze, and might not be recoverable.

Since babies do not draw breath and thus take in “spirit” until they are born, the death of a fetus cannot be the death of a living human being according to the inerrant word of God. And the Word IS God. (John 1:1-2)

Until recent centuries the heart was considered a center of emotions and not the pulse of life. There was little concept of the brain or central nervous system: “… they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart ….” (Isaiah 6:10) Thus the valentine is heart-shaped and red and expresses thoughts and feelings rather than cardiac function. That was the state of science in Biblical times and it was the extent of God’s inerrant knowledge. God and His prophets did not even realize that blood fully circulated through the body until William Harvey published his findings 1,628 years after the nominal birth of Christ.

I am not defending the killing of fetuses and don’t know anyone who does. And we do need some laws restricting it. I do not want to substitute theocracy for democracy either. I suggest that the right to lifers admit to their moral instincts which humanists share, that are not derived from the Bible but which were the true inspiration for the Bible and, in modern times, are informed by science.

Michael N. Ireland

Parkersburg