Catholics Made the Worst Possible Decision

We've discussed here countless times the question of when a human being begins its existence. By reviewing options from around the world we know many options are available. So far as we can tell, the earliest advocacy of some time other than birth was the "quickening." This was not advocated by a religion. It was promoted as an advertising gimmick by the emerging trained medical practice. This group was competing with the previous folk medicine and wanted to be known as science based. It had learned through autopsies the fetus developed over time. 

The beginning of the notion a human being is present at conception was quite recent, 1869. That was when the decree came down from the Catholic hierarchy. Before that, there was disagreement and various views were held by various factions. In one of his writings, Thomas Acquinas said the human was not present until it had gone through several stages. Other places he wrote other things. 

In any event, the 1869 decision to place the time of a human presence at conception started theology and politics on this issue down a rabbit hole. This was a terrible decision because, first, it took control of women over their own bodies away from them and, second, it messed up the invitro fertilization science so badly it is now damaged. For couples to have access to invitro fertilization, embryos often need to be frozen for later use. Sometimes there is no later use. There is no agreement in the public about whether these frozen embryos can be flushed.

Prohibiting the flushing of frozen embryos takes away all or much of the ability for some women to get pregnant. As I understand it, pregnancies are more difficult to achieve than in past times making IVF more valuable than ever. 

We have only scratched the surface of problems stemming from the 1869 decision to declare one fertilized cell a human being. Now that a few cells are frozen and stored for years other questions arise. Can these few frozen cells collect inheritance? Some of these frozen cells many be millionaires. And, if they die, who inherits their money?

Another issue is the status of these frozen cells in tax law. Parents can list their dependent children for tax deductions. If the parents have a dozen different frozen clumps of cells, why not list a dozen dependents? We have lots of fun ahead of us.