Many have enjoyed sledding down a snow packed hill on an inner tube, toboggan or an old fashioned sled. Along with the fun and thrill come some dangers – many things can go wrong. However, the abortion industry has developed a new kind of sled that is proving very dangerous…especially to the unborn.
S.L.E.D. defined: Advocates for abortion make a distinction between a human being and a human person. A human being, ie. unborn child, does not qualify as a human person because “personhood” has not yet developed. Qualifiers lie in at least four basic qualities of life. The S = Size of the being, L = Level of development, E = Environment in which the being exists and the D = Dependency of the being. Being “less than” in any or all of these categories places the being in the non-person category, thus disqualifying them from certain human rights such as the right to life.
Breaking the SLED. How much does size matter? Certainly an unborn child is smaller than most born humans…but not all. A child born at 26 weeks may be smaller than a normal gestation birthed baby, but is just as alive. How does this test figure into the many varieties of people sizes in the world? Does this mean that all smaller people are less human than all larger people? Looking at the Level of Development factor we see that people develop at different rates and to less or larger degrees. So anyone of lesser development may be killed regardless of size because they are less of a person?
How about their environment? The unborn is surviving in a different environment than born people. Does this make them ‘less than’? How does this factor figure into the deep sea diver who, without help, could not survive in the deep? Really? Can a “…7-inch journey through the birth canal magically transform a value-less human into a valuable person? Nothing has changed except their location.”[1]
And finally, the Degree of Dependency. Not only do the unborn depend on others for their survival, but so do toddlers, the injured and the aged. At what point do people earn or lose their right to life along the dependency continuum? If a toddler falls into the lake, do we instantly consider that the toddler has become too dependent to help? Certainly it is easy to see how this view of life expands into many other areas such as skin color, ethnicity, or where one resides.
In her article entitled, “Pro-Life Crash Course” Amy K. Hall quotes, “Steve Wagner formulated this quick defense of the unborn as a human being: If the unborn is growing, it must be alive. If it has human parents, it must be human. And living humans like you and I are valuable aren’t they?”[2] Any way you look at it, it is simple discrimination. A pro-life perspective is inclusive of all people. Everyone is considered a human being, a human person, and endowed with God-given rights. Precious in His sight and known of Him since before birth and even before conception (Job 31:18, Psalm 139:13, Isaiah 44:24, Jeremiah 1:5). Life can be a slippery slope.
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