It has come to my attention, that today (July 17th, 2022) in Huntington Indiana, there is a so called Human Rights rally to defend a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy. So, in that, I feel the need to bring some education to those that believe the termination of the unborn is a Human Right.

And to clarify my ability to speak on this, despite being an older white male, I have fought for Human Rights for over 2 decades. Earning my certification in Human Rights Education from the USIDHR. I have supported and worked through various organization such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and currently stand with groups like HIAS, Exodus, among others. Some based within the Christian faith and some that are fully secular. So, let’s begin.

Prior to fertilization, both the egg and he sperm contain half of the genetic coding of a human. Upon fertilization that combination creates a human life. This has been reported and documented as far back as 1974. But to show that, even with updates to modern medicine and research, that this offical declaration has not changed I’ll use more modern declarations. Such as T.W. Sadler’s 2006 declaration in Langman’s Medical Embryology text. It states “Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male gamete (sperm) and the female gamete (oocyte) unite to give rise to a zygote”.

It was also stated in the 3rd version of Human Embryology and Teratology, “Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a ‘moment’) is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte”.

In 2004, the American College of Pediatrics definitively stated that human life begins at conception. Now that I have shown that the unborn is truly a human life by definitive science and not by Christian belief, we can move on from the whole concept of ‘Keep your religion out of my ovaries’ chants and the dis-allowance of science.

Let’s now quickly look at the U.S. legal definition of murder. Under the United States legal code Title 18, Part I, Chpater 51 a it states “Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing; or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse,child abuse, burglary, or robbery; or perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of assault or torture against achildor children; or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder in the first degree.Any other murder is murder in the second degree”.

Now that we have scientifically determined that a fertilized human egg is a living being and legally defined the term murder, logic and law dictates that the unborn human is in fact a life. This is where the Human Rights part comes in.

On December 10, 1948, shortly after the founding of the United Nations, the member nations determined thirty articles of Human Rights that are to guaranteed in response to the Genocide of over eleven million (roughly six million Jews and roughly five million non-Jews) during the Nazi holocaust in the mid Twentieth Century. The Full declaration can be found at UN DOHR.

The Preamble is as follows. “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore,

The General Assembly,

Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction. ”

I will write articles on each of the thirty declarations independently. Each declaration in this declaration is an issue in itself and warrants expounding upon. So lets start with the very first declaration.

The Right to Life

The right to life is the very first because with it, none of the others have a need to exist. The Declaration states this rights as such. ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood’. Now, a bit of a note. This was not the original wording. The original wording used the term ‘all men’ instead of ‘all humans’. That wording was changed so that there would be no misunderstanding that these thirty declarations were meant for everyone to be born on this planet during every future generation. The two people credited with this change was Eleanor Roosevelt of the US (widow of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Hansa Mehta of India.

Now, the argument will come, ‘but it says born free’. Yes it does. And to be born, the conceived need to grow to fruition and delivered. And since science has determined that the fertilized oocyte is a living being and the US government has determined that murder is the ending of a life with malice and forethought (containing one but not both of these is a lesser degree of murder known as second degree murder) then logic dictates that the unborn are also protected under this declaration.

So let’s review the four main points of this article so there is no misunderstanding.

1. Life begins at fertilization
2. Murder is the taking of life with malice or forethought
3. All life is protected as a human right as defined by the nations  of the world
4. Abortion is NOT a Human Right.

Ronan O’Rahilly and Fabiola Müller, Human Embryology and Teratology, 3rd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001. p. 8.

T.W. Sadler, Langman’s Medical Embryology, 10th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. p. 11