"I marvel at God's mercy".

The human heart yearns to know the truth about life, and recently even the media, who refuse to acknowledge the wonderful miracle of preborn life, have had to grapple with the stark reality of some very barbaric laws in Canada, Britain and the United States.

Personhood 

The October `96 ruling from the Manitoba Court of Appeal, stating that a woman did not have to seek treatment for a glue sniffing dependency that was threatening the life of her preborn baby, has left an uneasy feeling in the minds and hearts of millions of people across our nation. The court ruling is based on the belief that an unborn baby is not a person in law.

What is so astonishing is that in Canadian law, personhood is directly linked to birth. In other words, one is not a person until birth. Therefore, in the eyes of the law, if one is not a person, one is not a human being and therefore a nonentity, with no legal rights. This, in part, is also the basis of the Supreme Court ruling affirming the legal right of a woman to kill her unborn baby by (tax- funded) institutionalized abortion. This law is as barbaric as the U. S. Dred Scott ruling of the 1800's making slavery legal because blacks supposedly were not human beings.

If one is a human being or a person on the day of birth, one is also a human being on the day before birth; and if a baby is born prematurely at seven months and is a human being on the day it was born, it surely must have been a human being the day before as well. In other words, a baby's residency, whether inside its mother's womb or outside its mother's body, does not dictate his humanity or personhood. The obvious fact is that our humanity and personhood begin at conception, at that miraculous moment when God creates a new individual, so distinct that its genetic code will never be repeated in the history of the world.

Another disturbing example comes from Britain where a woman decided to abort one of her twins because she wanted only one baby to live. This also has left many people in a state of disbelief. By law, the woman was "only" exercising her "legal right", a perceived right that has been enshrined in most of the industrialized nations. This jolted some people into the realization of how brutal our societies have become, a realization even more distressing in the light of the marvelous scientific and medical evidence, through ultrasound and fiber optics, that reveals the secret life of the unborn child as one of intricate beauty and wonder. The unborn baby wakes, sleeps, sucks its thumb, and feels pain. The baby even learns to recognize his mother's voice and can be born with a liking for classical music if his mother frequently listened to classical music throughout her pregnancy.

Thirdly, President Clinton's reluctance to sign the bill outlawing partial-birth abortions speaks clearly of how the culture of death has affected the minds of individuals in powerful positions. His failure to ban infanticide has troubled and shamed millions of Americans.

Fourthly, the December 1990 Canadian court ruling, acquitting an Ottawa mother of injuring her unborn child with a pellet gun because the child was not legally a person in the eyes of the court, is a further case in point.

Finally, we are at another crossroads with the Saskatchewan Latimer case, in which a farmer in 1993 killed his severely disabled daughter Tracey. His second trial in Battleford has been set for next October. If we hope to reclaim the sanctity of human life in our society, the Supreme Court will have to reaffirm the worth of all the Tracey Latimers. But will it?

God does not forget

The great Russian historian and writer Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, commenting on the plight of the ruinous Russian Revolution, stated that he could find no better explanation for this disaster than the one he had heard as a child, "Men have forgotten God; that is why all this happened." Solzhenitsyn also states, "What is more, if they called upon me to identify the principal trait of the entire 20th century, I would be unable to find anything more precise than to reflect once again on how we have lost touch with our Creator."

Even though much of our society has forgotten about God, He never forgets us. His mercy knows no boundaries, for it is His very nature to be merciful, even to those who mock His creative powers by participating in the destruction of innocent human life.

I marvel at God's mercy and grace. (Lk 23: 39-43). To know that Jesus, the King of Life, for whom the entire universe and mankind have been created (Col. 1:15-17) would humble Himself and take on human flesh knowing full well He would be crucified, says everything there is to say about His love for each one of us. In spite of ourselves, the grace for eternal life that flows from Calvary through the resurrected Jesus is still open to everyone through repentance and faith, if they give their hearts to Him. (Col 1:18-23).

The recent conversion of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, America's number one abortionist of days gone by, should fill everyone with hope in knowing that the gates of hell shall not prevail against God's kingdom of light.

Dr. James McLane is a veterinarian. He is past president of the Saskatchewan Prolife Association. He, his wife Maureen, and their six children live in Battleford, Saskatchewan.