What is the value of human life?

The name “Human Coalition” was chosen to reflect our core belief that every human being is uniquely made in the image of God. Every human being has priceless value and unlimited potential regardless of the circumstances of their conception.

The word human denotes something so unique and so valuable that it is reserved for only one species: homo sapiens. In the created order, humans stand alone as the crowning expression of our Creator.

Humanity doesn’t begin the moment we are born or the second we take our first breath. Humanity begins at the moment of conception, when a sperm and an egg come together to form a zygote, which, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, is “a fertilized egg cell that results from the union of a female gamete (egg, or ovum) with a male gamete (sperm). In the embryonic development of humans and other animals, the zygote stage is brief and is followed by cleavage, when the single cell becomes subdivided into smaller cells.”

According to Human Development: The Span of Life, “In that fraction of a second when the chromosomes form pairs, the sex of the new child will be determined, hereditary characteristics received from each parent will be set, and a new life will have begun.”

Despite all the scientific evidence confirming what we know to be true about life in the womb, abortion supporters continue to devalue the preborn—from the zygote stage through the first few months of fetal development and, in many cases, even until the human is born. And in some cases, the disregard for human life continues beyond birth, as some people support legalized infanticide. Our society has devalued life in the womb to such a degree that about 3,000 preborn humans are killed every day in America through abortion. Indeed, no other segment of society has been stripped of their God-given rights to the extent that the preborn have. Preborn children are the most discriminated group in American history.

When we allow the wanton, rampant killing of the preborn, we are assaulting the one place that God designed to protect life at its most vulnerable stages—the womb. I recently read an article written by Pastor Mark Jones, senior minister of Faith Vancouver Presbyterian Church and author of Knowing Christ. His insight into how much God values the womb is incredible:

God also created the womb as the place from which he would bring people into the world for his Son (Colossians 1:16). When an unborn child is killed, it is not just a sin against God but also a sin against Christ’s glory. Why? Because that eternal soul will never have the opportunity to glorify Christ in this world. 

Each abortion potentially robs Christ of an embodied, living worshiper — the kind God seeks to glorify both himself and his Son. Abortion is so wrong because it robs God of his highest prerogative in this world: a creature made in the image of Christ who worships God by the Spirit.

If there’s anything that should grieve us about abortion — and there are many things — it should be that Christ has been robbed of his glory. 

We want children to have life. But more than that, we want children to have life in Christ — the life he came to offer by entering this world in the womb of a virgin.

This is a central fact for the pro-life Christian. We are human persons from the moment of conception, just as Christ was a human person from the moment of His conception. God clearly demonstrated that life in the womb is priceless, because He Himself came to earth through the womb.

It is certainly a disturbing, indeed a haunting truth that killing preborn children is, according to Pastor Jones, “tantamount to entering a safety zone created by God and ransacking the things he loves most.”

It’s ironic that our nation’s leaders have passed laws such as the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004. (It’s also called “Laci and Conner’s Law” because it was named for Laci Peterson and her eight-month preborn son Conner, who were murdered in 2002 by Laci’s husband, Scott.) This controversial law makes it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. And yet, every day the lives of an estimated 3,000 fetuses are snuffed out at the hands of an abortionist.

From the same lips we praise a woman’s unlimited access to abortion while we cheer the Unborn Victims of Violence Act that makes it a separate crime to kill or harm an unborn child during an assault on the mother.

This cultural double-mindedness is both fatal and nonsensical. And it’s one of the many reasons why Human Coalition is dedicated to not just rescuing children and serving families, but also educating the public about what it means to be human.

Later this month, I will share part three of my multipart blog piece about the Four Points of Proof for Life, discussing the value of life from a philosophical perspective. You can find my previous two blog pieces here, which dig deep into the biblical and scientific points of proof for life that provide the backdrop for our organization’s new name.

You can also learn more here about Human Coalition and our mission to honor the dignity of every human life by rescuing children and serving families. As always, I appreciate your thoughts and feedback regarding my blog pieces, so please don’t hesitate to respond in the comments.

* Lawrence B. Finer and Stanley K. Henshaw, “Disparities in rates of unintended pregnancy in the United States, 1994 and 2001,” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2006, 38(2): 90–96.