Is Georgia’s new bill pro-life?
Does an ill-gotten crumb satisfy a starving man?
I’m starving. Starving for leadership that demands the right to life for all of us. Starving for leadership that remains inflexible. Starving for leadership that will not stoop to let the end justify the means.
Let me be less cryptic. Before all of you Georgians stands HB 1358. A bill by Rep. Martin Scott, but sponsored by Rep. James Mills. This bill is entitled “The Human Embryo Protection Act” and was submitted on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. This bill protects some embryos, a very small group in fact, the ones being created for parents who can’t conceive on their own, while affirming that embryos in the uterus of a woman should be denied personhood.
Line 12 of HB1358: “An in vitro human embryo exists as a legal person until such time as the in vitro human embryo is implanted in a human uterus.” Allow me to translate into southern. As long as the little human is in a dish in the lab, it is granted personhood. Once the little human is inside mama, it’s personhood is removed.
It would be one thing to assert the rights of humans in the lab of fertilization clinics without asserting that there are no rights for embryos in the womb. But this bill does not even wait to be gutted in committee--it guts itself.
So, is a bill that affirms the denial of personhood to developing humans in the womb pro-life? That is the question.