Friday, June 19
The Claim to Humanity
OPINION
Key Text: Ps. 139:16
Procreation in human terms
has come to be viewed dispassion-
ately. A sperm joins with an egg
to form a single cell. That cell
then divides. As it continues to di-
vide, it becomes an embryo. The
American Heritage Dictionary
defines an embryo as: “An or-
ganism in its early stages of
development, especially before it
has reached a distinctively recog-
nizable form . . . in humans, the
pre-fetal product of conception up
to the beginning of the third
month of pregnancy.” As the
embryo continues to mature, it
becomes a fetus. Again a defi-
nition according to the same
dictionary: “The unborn young of
a viviparous vertebrate [offspring
that lives in its mother’s womb];
in humans, the unborn young
from the end of the eighth week
to the moment of birth.”
According to our legal system,
it is only after the 24th week of
existence that this lump of or-
ganic material has any possible
legal rights as a human being.
There are people who insist that
the cell/embryo/fetus has no claim
to humanity until it is born.
But what is God’s perspective
of an unborn child? How does the
Creator view His creation? Psalm
139:13, 15 give information as to
when God views us as humans:
when we were knit together,
when we were woven together in
our mother’s womb. How does
God value us at this point? Verse
16 gives further evidence: “Your
eyes saw my unformed body. All
the days ordained for me were
written in your book before one of
them came to be” (NIV). At the
time when we were being knit in
our mother’s womb, God knew
what would happen to us every
single day of our lives. This knowl-
edge does not apply merely to our
earthly life, but to our heavenly
days as well. At the moment of
conception, God sees us as we are,
then, a single cell; and He knows
our entire life for all eternity, pro-
viding, of course, we choose a life
that leads to eternity.
God’s intimate knowledge of
us, as described in Psalm 139, de-
clares that there is no point in
our lives that God does not care
enough about us to know every-
thing there is to know about us.
He knows us from the moment of
conception, He cares about our
daily activities, and He knows
every one of our days before they
ever come to be.
REACT
How does Ps. 139 affect your
views on abortion?
1. The American Heritage Dictionary (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985), p. 499.
2. Ibid., p. 448.
by Lynette M. Wilcox
Lynette M. Wilcox has received her master’s degree in music from the
New England Conservatory of Music and is currently pursuing a career
in opera.
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