The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Paul P. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Research - Sanctity of Life
I have always believed in the sanctity of life, and have known that the bible supported this belief. However, I had never before realized how much scripture is related to this topic. Obviously abortion is most commonly mentioned when this topic’s broached, because of its prevalence and severity. And while much of my report will be focused on this, I also realize that it has been debated about so frequently that what I write on this matter will be most likely be utterly useless with regard to the influence it might have on any given person. Every single argument, angle and point in existence regarding abortion has almost certainly been used before, thus I doubt I will have anything new to add.
There is really something to be said for the sanctity of life in general. Further examination of the scriptures helped me to more fully appreciate this. The bothersome neighbor or coworker that everyone deals with at some point in time - his life is sacred. The starving people never seen or known by anyone who might care- their lives are sacred. The heartless tyrant living several countries away that most people rather have dead than anything else; the person said to be a sociopath and without a soul; the person whose life is filled with crimes more terrible than most could even think of-all of their lives are sacred. And yes, every child’s life from the point of conception is sacred as well.
Before this study I had known that abortion was very wrong. After doing a little more research online, I know it to be absolutely disgusting and downright wicked. I was actually somewhat ill after reading some of the quotes given. This is one of the milder quotes found on the website Gospelweb.net, made by a one time abortion clinic worker.
"I found much distress in the clinic, but it involved not only the women. I saw the pain of the babies who were born burned from the saline solution used for late-term abortions. I saw the bits of feet, bits of hands, the mangled heads and bodies of the little people. I saw pain and felt pain."
There were other quotes even more painful than this too read. Needless to say, after reading several pages of similar quotes ranging from the crookedness of the abortion centers to the pain that infants very evidently went through as a result of the abortions, I wondered if I was going to throw up.
Interestingly enough, later on in my search I found several quotes from early church leaders regarding abortion as wrong as well. With few exceptions, the followers of God have from the beginning been against it. This quote is found on abortionfacts.com, found in the "Letter of Barnabas 19" from 74 A.D.: "Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born."
Who would have thought that this would have been a hot topic then as well?
A research paper on the sanctity of life could be twenty pages long and still not do it justice. My belief here still stands. In fact, this study has only strengthened my viewpoint that life is sacred, and that no person has the right destroy what God has crafted.
