A response to Kelly Scoles letter.

Hi Kelly.
Allow this conservative (non politician) to answer some of your questions.

We rail against government interference because it is so often unconstitutional. We defend freedom against communism and other totalitarianism forces because we love our democratic Republic.

We endorse government intrusion into "a woman's healthcare (in this case abortion) because our constitution guarantees life in the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits the states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law" (and babies in utero are very live persons. The Fifth Amendment repeats the same 11 words. The Declaration of Independence, while not law per se, describes the primary purpose of the Constitution as protecting life. Both the Declaration and Constitution are imbued with the Founder's "personal Christian beliefs" and all of them believed that our system could not work without the moral guidance of religion.

Conservatives "insist it is the government’s job to be a partner in a pregnancy" to assure that life is not destroyed by abortion, which in every case brutally kills a baby waiting to be born. Democrats shamefully use the outrageous case of this 10-year-old girl who was impregnated, for political purposes. The doctor was legally bound to report the case to Ohio police authorities and have the rapist arrested, and reportedly did not, though I'm not up to date here.

"He Gym [sic] Jordan (R-OH) smugly declared that Science has “changed in the last years" and suggested that it has settled the question of when the body is “ensouled.” It hasn’t." Wrong - it has! Without returning to several earlier columns discussing the question of "ensoulement" (an ancient term), I affirm my conclusions based entirely on modern science. At the moment when the zygote includes both XX chromosomes (female) and XY chromosomes (male) human life has begun, not before. What's a Zygote? "Fertilization is a process that usually happens within a few hours of ovulation. It's that critical point in reproduction when the sperm meets the newly released egg. At this meeting, 23 male (XY) and 23 female (XX) chromosomes mix together to create a single cell embryo called a zygote" - male or female. The ancient Greeks understood embryonic human life in 500BC and outlawed abortion by a mandatory ethical oath.

You say: "Science can detect the presence of life but not of the human soul." That's because we will never have a microscope capable of scanning spiritual things, the spirit itself not being visible. But its effects are.

Though the Church of the 13th century (Aquinas) could not understand the precision of this statement, it certainly taught that human life began with "ensoulement" - and we now know exactly when that happens. However nothing much can be done today to persuade most of the scientific community of this, being atheistic, they mock the existence of the human soul and the reality of life after death. This is the greatest threat to our civilization today.

Lastly, you complain of "these political [pro life] atrocities." "A grown man pontificates about a female child (rape victim)." Why should that shock you Kelly? Men, especially fathers, have an equal duty to provide for the safety of their children. They should be as vigilant as present day St. Josephs.