Oh, Those Hobgoblins!
“A foolish consistency
is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen and philosophers
and divines.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
While Tom Parker may be an expert on the issue, we can’t even begin to wrap our heads around the numbers. And numbers seem to matter.
Is the magic number somewhere between 1 and 24 hours? Or 1 day? Up to 116 days – 16 weeks? 168 days? Up to 340 days?
Ah, they’re just numbers.
So, before Tom Parker, let’s look at the numbers.
After a single (1) egg (female gamete) has been release by the ovaries, it is propelled by microscopic, finger-like structures – fimbria – through the fallopian tubes toward the uterus. In unprotected sex, millions of sperm cells (male gametes), which may live up to five days, are released – each with the sole purpose of finding and penetrating that single egg. The first numbers: one and millions.
Only one male gamete of those millions will accomplish fertilization. Fertilization equals “conception.” When and if fertilization occurs, the newly formed cell - a zygote – continues to move down the fallopian tube, dividing into two, then four, then more and more cells.
Here’s where numbers begin to be important: In general, conception only happens 25% to 30% of the time, a percentage that decreases around age 35.
The zygote’s journey to the uterus will be about a week; at approximately 100 cells, the bundle – now called a blastocyst - must attach itself – implant - to the lining of the woman’s uterus – the endometrium.
A new issue: Implantation is not guaranteed; if it does not occur, the fertilized egg will be passed in the next menstrual period. Implantation usually occurs between six to twelve days after fertilization; implantations closer to and beyond ten days may presage medical problems, including ectopic pregnancy – a potentially life and/or future-ability-to-have-children threatening medical emergency. If implantation of the blastocyst occurs, the body will begin producing the hormones necessary to support a pregnancy and menstrual periods will stop during the pregnancy. The implanted cells eventually create two separate structures: the embryo (later the fetus) and the placenta.
In in vitro fertilization, implantation rates vary between 10% and greater than 40%.
The embryonic state lasts from about the third until the eighth week of pregnancy and the blastocyst begins to develop structures like the neural tube (essentially the future-but-not-yet brain and nervous system, including the spinal cord); head, eyes, mouth and limbs form. A fluttering of cells that will eventually become the heart begins as early as four weeks after conception or six weeks after the first day of the last menstrual period. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) calls this fluttering in the embryonic heart tube “cardiac activity” not a “heartbeat.” [“Pro-birth” forces consistently and erroneously refer to a “heartbeat” and some politicos are reportedly in favor of using this fluttering as the cutoff point for allowing abortions – even though it is not a “heartbeat.”]
At approximately five weeks, two heart tubes will have formed in the embryo and blood flows to this tubular “heart” as it begins to beat. During the sixth to seventh week the heart tubes will twist and bend to form all four chambers of the heart; valves between the atria and ventricles form at approximately 8 weeks and by the end of the ninth week all four chambers of the heart will be fully formed. Not until weeks 10 to 12 will the brain take over regulation of the heartbeat.
More numbers: In vitro fertilization (IVF; in vitro – Latin for “in glass”) is a complex series of procedures that requires the collection of mature eggs from a woman’s ovaries and fertilization by sperm in a lab. At 48 hours after egg retrieval and fertilization, embryos – blastomeres – should be at 2 to 4 cells and 7-10 cells by 72 hours. The Web site of the Advanced Fertility Center of Chicago, echoes many other IVF programs:
“By 72 hours (“day 3”), we like to see at least 6 cells – and preferably some at about 8 cells. We have seen babies that came from 4 cell embryos on day 3, but chances for pregnancy increase significantly with increasing cell number.
“Embryos with higher cell numbers, regular appearing cells and little or no fragmentation have a higher overall chance of implanting than do other embryos with less cells, more irregularity and significant fragmentation.” [Emphasis in original text.]
Obviously, decisions about the “quality” of fertilized eggs/embryos and whether to implant are made under microscopes and as a result of consultations by a range of medical specialists and the want-to-be parents.
Statistics from the Society for Reproductive Technology (SART) indicated:
“[F]or women under 35 the percentage of live births via IVF is 55.6%. Live births per first embryo transfer is 41.4%. With a later embryo transfer, the live births percentage is around 47%. It is also important to note that these statistics are all based on a woman using her own eggs.”
That means that, even in a health woman 35 years old or younger, nearly forty percent of the implanted fertilized embryos that politicians and “pro-birth” forces argue are “sacred” will not come to term.
Over the course of almost forty weeks, these six to ten cells will grow to roughly 26,000,000,000 - twenty-six billion.
A PubMed Central article (August 2016) from the National Library of Medicine: National Center for Biotechnology Information examined the number-of-cells issue and offered “Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body” and reported:
“Thoroughly revised estimates show that the typical adult human body consists of about 30 trillion human cells and about 38 trillion bacteria.”
In an almost 4,000-word 2012 essay – “”Metaphysical and Moral Status of Cryopreserved Embryos” available at the National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, Metaphysical and Moral Status of Cryopreserved Embryos - PMC (nih.gov) - St. Louis University Professor of Health Care Jason T. Eberl writes:
“Those who oppose human embryonic stem cell research argue for a clear position on the metaphysical and moral status of human embryos. This position does not differ whether the embryo is present inside its mother's reproductive tract or in a cryopreservation tank. It is worth examining, however, whether an embryo in ‘suspended animation’ has the same status as one actively developing in utero… I conclude that a cryopreserved human embryo counts, both metaphysically and morally, as a person….”
In summary, Emberl asserts that after fertilization and while the embryo is cryptopreserved:
[A]n embryo's rational soul [is] continuing to inform it — albeit in a quiescent state - until the embryo returns to a condition in which the soul's capacities for life and, after a period of further development, sensation and rational thought may be actualized once again…
Life, [Thomas] Aquinas [1225-1274] further contends, is a fundamental good for a human person. Without life, none of a human person's other inherently valuable capacities - including rationality - can be actualized in the service of contributing to the overall goodness of the natural world in which human persons exist and flourish. To act against the existence and flourishing of a human person thus constitutes a morally impermissible act that must be avoided due to the ethical mandate not to destroy, injure, or impede life as a fundamental good.
In a case about accidentally destroyed cryptopreserved embryos, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker’s recent concurring opinion begins by referring to the state’s constitutional declaration: “[I]t is the public policy of this state to recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life” and then verges to examine the meaning of “sanctity of unborn life.”
Focusing on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s admonition “to give words and phrases an expansive rather than narrow interpretation,” Parker argues that “sanctity” was defined as “Holiness of life and character: Godliness…” He holds that the “People of Alabama chose the term ‘sanctity,’ with all its connotations,” when they amended the state constitution in 2018 to include the words “sanctity of unborn life.”
Parker then argues:
“But the principle – that human life is fundamentally distinct from other forms of life and cannot be taken intentionally without justification – has deep roots that reach back to the creation of man ‘in the image of God.’ (KingJames).”
and turns to commentaries by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), John Calvin (1509-1564) and Petrus van Mastricht (1630-1706).
In his penultimate paragraph, Parker notes:
“[T]he doctrine of the sanctity of life is rooted in the Sixth Commandment: ‘You shall not murder.’”
He then returns to Aquinas to provide an unstated justification for other judicial actions we’ll note below:
“Aquinas taught that ‘it is in no way lawful to slay the innocent’ because ‘we ought to love the nature which God has made, and which is destroyed by slaying him.’ …These and many similar writings, creeds, catechisms, and teachings have informed the public’s view of life as sacred.”
In his last paragraph before addressing “the meaning of the phrase ‘sanctity of unborn life’” in the Alabama Constitution, Parker summarizes his “theological” position. [For ease of reading, we have not included his citations.]
“In summary, the theologically based view of the sanctity of life adopted by the People of Alabama encompasses the following: (1) God made every person in His image; (2) each person therefore has a value that far exceeds the ability of human beings to calculate; and (3) human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself. Section 36.06 [of the Alabama Constitution] recognizes that this is true of unborn human life no less than it is of all other human life – that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”
More numbers: The average adult male body contains around 36 trillion cells - 36,000,000,000,000 – and the average female body contains approximately 28 trillion – 28,000,000,000,000 cells.
Tom Parker began serving on the Alabama Supreme Court on January 1, 2005; since then the State of Alabama has executed 47 men by lethal injection and one – on January 25, 2024 – by oxygen deprivation asphyxiation through “nitrogen hypoxia.”
The Associated Press (January 27, 2024) reported that the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith began at 7:56 p.m. after a respirator mask – with plastic tubing connected to the adjoining control room - had been placed over his face from forehead to chin.
“Smith began to shake and writhe violently, in thrashing spasms and seizure-like movements, at about 7:58 p.m. The force of his movements caused the gurney to visibly move at least once. Smith’s arms pulled against the straps holding him to the gurney. He lifted his head off the gurney and then fell back.
“The shaking went on for at least two minutes. [Rev. Jeff] Hood repeatedly made the sign of the cross toward Smith. Smith’s wife, who was watching, cried out.
“Smith began to take a series of deep gasping breaths, his chest rising noticeably. His breathing was no longer visible at about 8:08 p.m. The corrections officer who had checked the mask before walked over to Smith and looked at him.
“The curtains were closed to the viewing room at about 8:15 p.m.”
Numbers matter.
The metaphysical/theological argument can be made that from the moment of fertilization the zygote is a person created in the image and likeness of God.
If that is true, any effort to interfere with implantation or to prevent birth is a violation of the will of God.
One cell, eight to ten cells (at the time of IVF implantation), between 70 and 100 cells on day five. If Justic Parker and those who agree with him believe this microscopic bundle of cells is human life – “in the image of God,” they must reject the 45th president’s reported “sixteen weeks is okay” position just as they oppose abortions at 22 weeks when chances of viability are about 5 to 6 percent, 23 weeks when chances are 23 to 27 percent, at 24 weeks when fetal viability chances range from 42 to 59 percent, 25 weeks – 67 to 76 percent chance of viability, and 26 weeks – the end of the second trimester – when the chance of viability is between 86 and 89 percent
Nonetheless, one thing is clear, certain and unarguable: During Justice Tom Parker’s almost twenty years on the Alabama Supreme Court, 48 men – each with approximately 37 trillion living cells were killed – 47 by lethal injection and one by nitrous asphyxiation.
Perhaps, by quoting Thomas Aquinas from one thousand years ago, Justice Parker justifies their deaths by saying they were “not innocent.”
“A foolish consistency
is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little statesmen and philosophers
and divines.”