A Satanic Temple, a liberal anti-Christian group that self-proclaims to represent “compassion and empathy,” is offering hugs and kisses in exchange for donations that fund two pro-abortion lawsuits filed against the State of Missouri, the International Business Times reports.
“You might want to present a person you approach with a Satanic Valentine’s card as means to courteously explain the event,” the Satanist group told the International Business Times about its efforts to recruit participants.
Pledges are granted based on the number of hugs and kisses received by participants on Valentine’s Day, the Libertarian Republic reported. In the example cited in the article, a participant receiving 20 hugs or kisses at a rate of $1 per hug or kiss pledged by the sponsor would generate $20 in donations for the pro-abortion lawsuits. Prizes will be distributed to those receiving the most hugs, kisses and pro-abortion donation money, the group said.
The Satanic Temple, a Salem, Massachusetts-based organization led by Lucien Greaves, is suing to overturn a Missouri law that requires a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion where a woman can view an ultrasound of her unborn baby and hear the fetal heartbeat; the Satanist group also is challenging a law ensuring women receiving literature that states life begins at conception, the report continues.
“They violate our belief in the inviolability of one’s body,” said the Satanic Temple.
“As an adherent to the principles of the Satanic Temple…my sincerely held religious beliefs are…I, and I alone, decide whether my inviolable body remains pregnant,” the group told the Washington Post.
The lawsuit is based on a woman known as “Mary Doe,” a Satanist whose attorneys believed these provisions in the state law were “designed to dissuade her from the procedure,” Al Jazeera America reported. Both state and federal lawsuits on religious grounds are pending.
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Mary Doe describes the Satanic Temple as “an association of politically aware Satanists, secularists, and advocates for individual liberty” that “makes decisions regarding her health based on the best scientific understanding of the world, even if the science does not comport with the religious or political beliefs of others.” Furthermore, “she alone decides whether to remove human tissue from her body,” the Washington Times reports.
However, for a group that cites scientific understanding of the world, there is plenty of science to uphold life as beginning at conception, as cited by numerous scientific and medical sources:
“Fertilization is the process by which male and female haploid gametes (sperm and egg) unite to produce a genetically distinct individual.”
Signorelli et al., Kinases, phosphatases and proteases during sperm capacitation, CELL TISSUE RES. 349(3):765 (Mar. 20, 2012)
“Human life begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoo development) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” “A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo).” Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003. pp. 16, 2.
“It is the penetration of the ovum by a sperm and the resulting mingling of nuclear material each brings to the union that constitutes the initiation of the life of a new individual.” Clark Edward and Corliss Patten’s Human Embryology, McGraw – Hill Inc., 30
“Your baby starts out as a fertilized egg… For the first six weeks, the baby is called an embryo.” Prenatal Care, US Department Of Health And Human Services, Maternal and Child Health Division, 1990
“The term conception refers to the union of the male and female pronuclear elements of procreation from which a new living being develops. It is synonymous with the terms fecundation, impregnation, and fertilization … The zygote thus formed represents the beginning of a new life.” J.P. Greenhill and E.A. Freidman. Biological Principles and Modern Practice of Obstetrics. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Publishers. 1974 Pages 17 and 23.
Furthermore, Canadian Physicians for Life summarized a collection of biomedical and scientific research articles, with scientific sources cited at the end of the piece, to come to the following conclusions regarding fetal pain: “At 16 weeks post-fertilization, in response to painful stimuli, the unborn child will also increase cortisol and B-endorphin production and increase their respiratory rate.
“Thus, there are clear behavioural and endocrine responses to stress very early in fetal development,” the Canadian Physicians for Life continued. “… Thus, it is pertinent that one understands the timing of the development of connections from the peripheral sensory receptors to the cortex. From very early in development, foetuses already appear to have nociceptors throughout most of their body. Starting at 5 weeks post-fertilization, nociceptors appear periorally, and by 12 weeks, are present throughout the body.”
A baby’s brain, spinal cord, and heart begin to form as early as five weeks after conception, the latest science understood by the Mayo Clinic states.
There is no religious argument presented. Simply biomedical and scientific evidence upholding the beginning of life at conception, and the neurophysiological development of a human being fully capable of feeling pain prenatally, based on the best scientific understanding of embryology as it stands today.
