Sanctity of Human Life

This article is reprinted from the Christian Courier from March, 1979. It was written by Wayne Jackson. The East Main Street Church of Christ was the publisher. Jackson was the editor.

Contrary to the unscientific assertions of evolutionists, man did not evolve from lifeless primordial matter; rather, as the Bible clearly teaches, "Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). In the New Testament Paul acknowledges that it is God who, "giveth to all life, and breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25). Human life, as a gift from God, is thus sacred. Yet, shockingly, there is a growing tendency to ignore this divine principle and hence to view human life as that which may be capriciously destroyed. Consider the following attitudes and practices.

Abortion - According to Dr. Paul Marx, the United Nations estimates that there are some 55 million abortions performed throughout the word annually (Abortion International, p. 1). Here in the U. S. approximately 1 to 2 million unborn babies are murdered each year, more than all the American lives lost in about 200 years of wars! In the 11 year Vietnam war, 50,000 American men died yet this country's medical profession, via abortions, kills more than that in any given 11 days. But it is radically argued that abortion does not constitute the taking of a human life. Well what is it then? Surely that which is conceived is alive. And unquestionably it is human. Abortion kills babies and that is a violation of Biblical morality. (Note: In some very rare instances, when a continued pregnancy would result in the mother's death, and very possibly the infant's as well, a decision must be made as to which life to save. Such a circumstance of course, is not comparable to active abortion.)

Euthanasia - More and more there is a clamoring in this country to kill the handicapped, the weak, the old, etc. Nobel laureate Francis Crick urges: "...no newborn infant should be declared human until it has passed certain tests regarding its genetic endowment and...if it fails these tests it forfeits the right to live" (Howard & Rifkin, p. 81). In 1974, Dr. Robert Cook of the University of Wisconsin testified before a Senate sub-committee than an estimated, "2,000 infants a year are dying in America because treatment has been withheld or stopped" (Paul Marx, Death Without Dignity, p. 9). Dr. Glanville Williams, in his book, The Sanctity of Life and the Criminal Law, strongly advocates the legalization of both, "humanitarian infanticide" and "euthanasia for handicapped children." Joseph Fletcher, prominent advocate of situational ethics, argues that we are, "morally obliged" to end the lives of those terminally ill. Dr. William Gaylin, professor of psychiatry and law at Columbia University declared, "...It used to be easy to know what we wanted for our children, and now the best for our children might mean deciding which ones to kill. We've always wanted the best for our grandparents, and now that might mean killing them..." (Marx, p. 3). Such attitudes as these are horribly wicked and Christians must speak out with vigor against such evils. (To be continued.)