Committed to Reality

or not so much perhaps.

This just in by email from longtime co-conspirator Dianne Irving.

FYI, as you probably already know, I am working with CRTL with the scientific "language" for this initiative, and so far they have been completely intellectually honest and have agreed to use the accurate objective scientific language that would protect all human beings, not just some.

That "language" is in concert with human embryology textbooks and the Carnegie Stages of Early Human Embryonic Development -- all available to anyone in stores, libraries and online.

Dianne has been doing this kind of thing, educating pro-lifers (self included) on what's what with the actual facts of life, so to speak. Dianne, BTW is well worth reading for those interested in diving in a little deeper into the life issues, bioethics, biotechnologies, the history of the bioethics movement (as opposed to the traditional Hippocratic medical ethics) and has quite a lot of articles available online. Several years ago, (OK, ten) I spent a year more or less unable to work and another year or so recovering. I didn't have a lot of energy but I could and did spend my time well by reading a lot.

A lot of what I read was by Dianne. Her work added the "anti-choice" component of my journey to becoming the crazed antichoicehomophobicracistmisogynistbigot I am today. At some point I decided I wanted to be the next Dianne Irving (only without going to the trouble of all those annoying PhDs). When I got to Toronto to become a professional anti-choice extremist one of the biggest perks of the job was that I got to work very closely with Dianne and become friends with her.

Anyway, Dianne continues to use her scientific knowledge and teaching experience to benefit the anti-death movement. Currently she is responding to this charming little missive from a group called "Republican Majority for Choice" who issued the following warning:

As many of our members might remember, Personhood would establish that a fertilized egg- far prior to what scientists and medical professionals consider the starting point for conception- has the same rights as a human being. The effects of Personhood would ripple across the nation, as these Constitutional Amendments are meant to be a direct challenge to Roe- and possibly costing the state millions of dollars in legal fees.

Watch out, Reality is coming for you.

Dianne calmly responds:

Contrary to the claim in the Republican email... prolife legislation has essentially failed since 1973 precisely because they have knowingly and willingly used either false scientific definitions in their bills, or have left out parts of critical scientific definitions -- both of which have created massive legal loopholes for abortion, the use of abortifacients, human embryo research, human cloning, human embryonic stem cell research, human genetic engineering, the use of aborted human embryonic and human fetal tissues in the production of vaccines, etc. No wonder they are now so terrified.

As I used to put it to the school groups I talked to,

when you put two members of the same species together, you generally get another member of the same species. Boy Giraffe meets girl Giraffe and usually produce a third Giraffe. (I do sometimes wonder where pro-aborts think babies come from.)

And despite those little propaganda posters on foetal development we used to see in the high school nurse's office, (so helpfully provided by Planned Parenthood) a human baby does not start as a shrimp.