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- Stem Cell Research/Cloning
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Marriott West -Waukesha, WI 53186
Preregistration is required.
Personhood
Personhood: The Pro-Life Movement's Ultimate Goal
The bedrock principle of the pro-life movement - that all preborn babies are "persons" and all innocent people share the inalienable right to life - is the benchmark against which pro-lifers must evaluate any strategy to protect preborn children.
What is Personhood?
What is personhood and why is it so foundational to the pro-life movement? Put simply, a "person" is a human being who is fully protected under the law; and we use the legal term "personhood" to describe this condition. Once a human being is declared a person, that individual is guaranteed certain legal rights.
To better understand personhood, we begin by asking the fundamental question of when human life begins. Embryological science has made crystal clear that human life begins at fertilization: the union of an egg and sperm resulting in a unique, genetically distinct human being. The answer to the question of when human life begins is a biological one.
The follow-up question is: "Is this tiny embryonic human being a ‘person' who is guaranteed the right to life?" In other words, should human beings be protected in law as persons; as citizens upon whom full constitutional protections (due process, equal protection, etc.) should confer? The answer to the question of personhood is a political/legal one. Once a human being is declared to be a legal person, there simply can be no exceptions to his or her inalienable right to life; just as there are no exceptions to our right to life. As we will see in the Roe v. Wade decision, any attempt to make an exception to one's personhood wholly undermines the "personhood" concept and renders it meaningless.
Only by declaring the preborn child a "person" will legal abortion end, whether it is through a U.S. Supreme Court decision, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, or a congressional bill. The federal Right to Life Act provides the educational, legal and political foundation necessary to end abortion in America.
House Resolution (H.R.) 881, The Right to Life Act, authored by U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter (CA), has over 75 congressional co-sponsors. The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. U.S. Representative Tom Petri is the only member of Wisconsin's congressional delegation who has signed onto the bill.
The Right to Life Act is the most inclusive and consistent pro-life legislation ever introduced. It applies legal personhood to all human beings, born and pre-born. Specifically, the bill would implement equal protection under the 14th Amendment for the right to life of each born and preborn human person. And it would define human being from fertilization, cloning, and any other moment at which an individual comes into being.
Establishing personhood would legally recognize the preborn child as a United States citizen at every stage of development and thus protect him or her against any physical harm, such as from surgical abortion, chemical abortion, embryonic stem cell research, research cloning, or any other violent attack. Put simply, the Right to Life Act would protect every human person - born and preborn - from his or her beginning without exception.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Seven Wisconsin members of the U.S. House of Representatives have NOT signed onto H.R. 881: Republicans James Sensenbrenner and Paul Ryan, and Democrats Ron Kind, Tammy Baldwin, Dave Obey, Steve Kagen, and Gwendolyn Moore.
Please contact your congressperson now and urge him or her to cosponsor H.R. 881, legislation declaring that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being. If your congressperson is Tom Petri, please contact him and thank him for his support of H.R. 881.
You may click here for Wisconsin Congressional Delegation contact information (after typing in your street address, scroll down to U.S. Congress to find your representative). You may also call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or call your representative's local district office.
To see the wording of H.R. 881, list of cosponsors, and bill summary, please click here.
For far too long, pro-lifers have limited themselves to protecting a life here and there - passing laws which slightly regulate abortion in the most outrageous cases. But pro-life lawmakers can pass a Right to Life Act that would end abortion by using the Constitution instead of amending it.
THE TIME IS NOW TO END LEGALIZED ABORTION
CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSPERSON TODAY!!