Pillars of Personhood Educational Booklet For more info on Pillars of Personhood, contact GRTL at [email protected] or 770.339.6880 © 2016, Georgia Right to Life Georgia Right to Life – PILLARS OF PERSONHOOD Page | 2 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3 What is Personhood? ................................................................................................................................... 6 Biblical Foundations .................................................................................................................................. 8 Historical Perspective .............................................................................................................................. 10 In Law ...................................................................................................................................................... 15 In Culture ................................................................................................................................................. 17 Threats To Personhood .............................................................................................................................. 21 Abortion .................................................................................................................................................. 25 What is Abortion? .......................................................................................................................... 26 Pro-Life with Exceptions ................................................................................................................ 31 How Did We Get Here? .................................................................................................................. 35 Where Do We Go From Here? ....................................................................................................... 37 Eugenics .................................................................................................................................................. 39 A History of Eugenics ..................................................................................................................... 41 Emerging Technology .............................................................................................................................. 47 Transhumanism ............................................................................................................................. 49 Pharmacological Enhancements .................................................................................................... 51 Stem Cell Research ......................................................................................................................... 53 Cloning ........................................................................................................................................... 56 Chimeras ........................................................................................................................................ 58 In Vitro Fertilization ....................................................................................................................... 63 Genetic Engineering ....................................................................................................................... 65 Ectogenesis .................................................................................................................................... 68 End of Life ............................................................................................................................................... 70 Terri Schiavo................................................................................................................................... 73 Euthanasia ...................................................................................................................................... 75 Is There Anybody In There? ........................................................................................................... 79 Advancing Personhood .............................................................................................................................. 84 Field Training .............................................................................................................................................. 87 Changing Hearts vs. Winning Arguments ................................................................................................ 88 Apologetics .............................................................................................................................................. 91 The Making and Faking of Human Life ........................................................................................... 93 The Taking of Human Life .............................................................................................................. 95 Making a Defense for Personhood ................................................................................................ 96 Feb-16 Pillars of Personhood | © 2016, Georgia Right to Life Georgia Right to Life – PILLARS OF PERSONHOOD Page | 3 Introduction The purpose of GRTL’s Pillars of Personhood is to educate communities in Georgia on the principles of personhood, issues facing personhood, and how the goals of the pro-life community must change as technology changes; and to train individuals on how to in relevant and meaningful dialogue in real-world situations. We will spend several hours together for the training seminar learning about what it means to be a person, how we can better view and value humanity through the lens of God’s divine purpose, and learn how to defend life against encroaching forces of destruction – even if they are intended to be good. This training time will include some lecturing, some small group work, and lots of learning. Our goal is that you will walk away from this seminar confident in your ability to engage in a meaningful dialogue with others about the sanctity of human life. After you and your peers have been trained, we will engage in a public outreach event with our Pillars of Personhood display (maybe somewhere in your community, on a local college campus, etc). There you will put everything you’ve learned into practice by engaging people with critical thinking, relevant perspectives, and compassion. Our desire is that you will be comfortable with changing the hearts and minds of citizens in your own community once you are equipped with the knowledge, confidence, and experience of public outreach. We hope that you find this training and subsequent outreach to be meaningful and powerful. If you have any questions at any point during the seminar or outreach, please grab our speaker or one of our peer leaders (they will be introduced to you and will have identifying shirts/name badges). Hand raising is encouraged, questions are welcomed, and learning is required! If you have any questions that you think of between or after the seminar and the outreach, you can email the team at [email protected]. Feb-16 Pillars of Personhood | © 2016, Georgia Right to Life Georgia Right to Life – PILLARS OF PERSONHOOD Page | 4 Georgia Right to Life MISSION STATEMENT: The fundamental purpose of Georgia Right to Life is to engage in actions that will restore respect and effective legal protection for all innocent human beings from earliest biological beginning until natural death. Objectives. The aim of Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) is to communicate that a human person is sacred by virtue of the fact that we are created in the image of a personal benevolent God. This means that all human life must be respected and protected regardless of race, gender, age or condition of dependency. We seek to educate our grassroots pro-life community, to inform government officials of pro-life policy, and to provide resources to other non-governmental organizations regarding the fundamental question, "What is a person?" Strategy. The historical Judeo/Christian understanding of the nature of personhood, which is foundational to our cultural framework, is being questioned. In response, GRTL intends to demonstrate that shifting our beliefs about the nature of man's being leads to consequences in culture that may be unintended, undesired, or even irreversible. If personhood is an evolving phenomenon in process rather than an objective, non-negotiable truth, then Western society's philosophic, scientific, and legal ethics will change accordingly. Georgia Right to Life is a Christian faith-based, non-profit, non-partisan, and non-sectarian organization. Education Political Action Legislation Education is the primary Political action always Our goal is full legal protection activity of Georgia Right to Life. precedes legislative objectives. for all innocent human life from Without an informed public, there Without a strong alliance of creation to natural death. is no shift in public opinion. Public concerned value voters, career A Personhood Amendment to the opinion drives public policy, which politicians, can and do, hide their Georgia Constitution in turn fuels political action. agendas from the voting public. accomplishes this objective. In Success at the polls produces Politicians "don't do what you the 2012 election cycle, 66% of prolife legislation. Please check expect, they do what you Georgia's