Last Tuesday's Wall Street Journal examined the fallout in the Senate from the House's adoption of Rep. Bart Stupak's amendment.

A key Democratic senator said Monday he will follow House colleagues in insisting on tough antiabortion language before he votes for a health overhaul bill, causing new headaches for Senate leaders even before debate on a final bill begins.

Leading Senate Democrats are seeking to prevent the abortion issue, which almost capsized the health-care debate in the House, from engulfing the Senate...Senate Democrats need 60 votes to overcome an expected filibuster, and all 40 Republicans are likely to oppose the bill. So the votes of every other Democrat and independent -- are required for passage. Abortion hasn't been a big issue in Senate health talks so far. But Democratic leaders expect that to change after its eruption among House Democrats over the weekend.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) capitulated at the 11th hour to Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.), who led a group of anti-abortion Democrats. Mr. Stupak introduced an amendment blocking the bill's government-administered insurance plan from covering abortion and forbidding people who receive government subsidies from buying policies covering abortion through a new insurance exchange.

For one thing, I can't believe it could be Democrats who might derail healthcare reform. On the other hand, I can believe (but wish I couldn't) that we're still arguing about abortion and that it's once again the issue of the hour.

Jack has believed for years that the debate could be settled if people would only accept that life does not begin at conception, but rather it begins with the onset of higher brain function, about 70 days after conception. Jack bases his belief on the widely accepted standard of pronouncing a person clinically dead after the cessation of all brain function. He (and Dr. Hans-Martin Sass) just walked that idea backward.

Now seems as good a time as any to reprint our original post to this blog, which spells out Jack's position (and contains a link to his original argument as it appeared in the "National Catholic Reporter.")

In 1986, my boss, Jack Sisson, published an article in the "National Catholic Reporter" in which he argued that human life does not begin in utero until the onset of higher brain function. At the time, he was a pro-life Catholic layman who recognized that a significant number of Catholics had divergent opinions on abortion.

Then, in 1989, Dr. Hans-Martin Sass of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University published a paper titled "Brain Life and Brain Death: A Proposal for a Normative Agreement." Sass first looked at established definitions of brain death, and reasoned that society could reach a consensus for protecting embryonic life by applying similar criteria for brain life.

Sass identified two levels of brain development. Cortical Brain Life I occurs with post-mitotic stationary neurons forming the early cortical plate -- 54 days after conception. Cortical Brain Life II recognizes the beginning of cortical neuro-neuronal synapes -- 70 days after conception. Sass hoped for a moral consensus by recognizing Brain Life II (the 70th day) as the point after which embryonic research would be unacceptable. Before that time, research, and presumably abortions, would be acceptable.

Many other philosophers, scientists and bioethicists have considered brain development in determining when to designate life in the womb as "human." As early as 1985, J.M. Goldenring presented an argument similar to Sass's -- that human life begins with the onset of brain life at eight weeks gestation.

Today, we can pronounce a person clinically dead if there is a complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity, or brain death. Jack's question: if we can accept brain death as the end of human life, why can't we similarly accept brain life as the beginning of human life?

Labels: beginning of human life, brain death, Hans-Martin Sass, healthcare reform, Stupak

I can't believe Terri Schiavo's family is still at it. Will they ever let that young woman rest in peace? This one is also from LifeNews.com (no surprise):

As LifeNews.com looks back at the painful euthanasia death of Terri Schiavo at the hands of her former husband, her brother, Bobby Schindler is releasing a letter written to Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida. Schindler criticizes Lynch for not doing enough to stop her death.

In the letter, provided to LifeNews.com, Schindler says he holds Lynch "more accountable for her horrific death than Michael Schiavo, his attorney, and even the judge that ordered her to die..."

"...Terri’s legacy is one of life and love. Sadly, your legacy will be that of the shepherd that stood silently by as one of his innocent disabled lambs was slowly and needlessly slaughtered by removing her food and water — while you persistently ignored the cries of her family for help," Terri's brother added.

Is this guy in some serious denial or what? Bobby, listen carefully. Terri wasn't there. Her brain was gone. You were keeping a shell of a person artificially alive. She. was. not. there. Will the family ever get that? Truly pathetic.

Read the rest of the article if you can.

NOTE: Fortunately, throughout this entire ordeal, Michael Schiavo conducted himself with dignity and respect for Terri, both in his memory of who she had been and in facing the reality that she was no more.

I can just tell you that Mr. Schiavo's overriding concern here was to provide for Terri a peaceful death with dignity, and I emphasize it because this death was not for the siblings, and not for the spouse and not for the parents. This was for Terri.
– George Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband, speaking to reporters hours after her death.

Labels: beginning of human life, brain death, Michael Schiavo, Terri Schiavo

Dr. Maureen L. Condic is an Assistant Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah. She is currently conducting research on the regeneration of embryonic and adult neurons following spinal cord injury. In 2003, she published an article in First Things: The Journal of Religion, Culture and Public Life. The title of the article is "Life: Defining the Beginning by the End," and I highly recommend that you read it.

From the article:

In contrast to the widespread disagreement over when human life begins, there is a broad social and legal consensus regarding when human life ends. Rarely has the point been made that the definition of human death can be applied to the question of when life commences with compelling symmetry. The definition of when life ends is both scientific and objective, and does not depend on personal belief or moral viewpoint. The current medical and legal understanding of death unambiguously defines both when human life ends and when it begins in a manner that is widely accepted and consistent with the legal and moral status of human beings at all stages of life.

In using criteria of death to determine criteria for human life, Dr. Condic takes a similar route as Dr. Hans-Martin Sass of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University , whose work inspired Jack to start this blog. (Sass specifically looks to brain death in formulating his hypothesis.) What's interesting is that they arrive at completely different conclusions. For those of you not familiar with Dr. Sass's work:

In 1989, Sass published a paper titled "Brain Life and Brain Death: A Proposal for a Normative Agreement." Sass first looked at established definitions of brain death, and reasoned that society could reach a consensus for protecting embryonic life by applying similar criteria for brain life. Sass identified two levels of brain development. Cortical Brain Life I occurs with post-mitotic stationary neurons forming the early cortical plate -- 54 days after conception. Cortical Brain Life II recognizes the beginning of cortical neuro-neuronal synapes -- 70 days after conception. Sass hoped for a moral consensus by recognizing Brain Life II (the 70th day) as the point after which embryonic research would be unacceptable. Before that time, research, and presumably abortions, would be acceptable.

Even though we disagree with Dr. Condic's final position, her argument is intelligent and well reasoned. Please take the time to read her paper. It's an excellent example of the level of discourse needed on this topic.

Labels: beginning of human life, brain death