Virginia Is for Zygote Personhood?

—By Kate Sheppard

| Tue Feb. 14, 2012 2:47 PM PST

  biblicone/Flickr

Virginia lawmakers want to grant fertilized eggs the same rights as adults.

We've covered the litany of so-called "personhood" measures—conferring legal rights on fertilzed eggs—that have popped up around the country since Mississippi voters defeated just that sort of effort last November. Now Virginia could become the first state in the country to actually pass personhood legislation.
On Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill introduced by Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) by a 66-32 vote. The bill, like other "personhood" measures, would amend the definition of the word "person" under state law to include zygotes, thereby granting them legal rights. The summary reads:

Provides that unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the Commonwealth, subject only to the laws and constitutions of Virginia and the United States, precedents of the United States Supreme Court, and provisions to the contrary in the statutes of the Commonwealth.

It will be interesting to see what happens from here. The bill now must be cleared by the state senate to move forward. But earlier this month, a panel in the state senate rejected a bill that would have limited abortions to the first 20 weeks after conception. This latest bill would be far more restrictive, potentially prohibiting all abortions and likely some common types of oral contraception. Virginia's House of Delegates also recently passed a new law forcing women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion.
Passage of this latest bill in the House of Delegates makes Virginia "dangerously close to making Virginia the first state in the country to grant personhood rights to fertilized eggs," says Tarina Keene, the executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. She noted that the state code mentions the word "person" 25,000 times, which would give this redefinition a broad reach into many aspects of the law. The measure now faces a vote.

jmtaylor70002/14/2012 05:12 PMin reply to h8koolaid

Hard to believe Virginia produced Jefferson, Madison, the first Bill for Religious Freedom the world had ever known. It's an interesting contradiction that the Baptist were one of the biggest proponents of the Virginia Bill for Religious Freedom, but then at that time they were the persecuted minority, and now that they have become a religious majority, they clearly lust to destroy the barrier that had it never been, emboldened by its defeat their existence would have surely ended then or be cramped into some tiny enclave.

Now that they have tasted civil political power, they have exchanged their humble beginnings for "pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution". (James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrances Against Religious Assessments)

“...During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. Enquire of the Teachers of Christianity for the ages in which it appeared in its greatest lustre; those of every sect, point to the ages prior to its incorporation with Civil policy.” [Ibid]

"Because the Bill implies either that the Civil Magistrate is a competent Judge of Religious Truth; or that he may employ Religion as an engine of Civil policy. The first is an arrogant pretension falsified by the contradictory opinions of Rulers in all ages, and throughout the world: the second an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation.” [Ibid]

Once the honeymoon period is over that has united all the Sects in their cause to establish Christianity as the national religion, if successful, the sect holding the majority will use its numbers to flood the government with its disciples and then turn it upon those that were once their allies. show more

 

 

bjwalls02/15/2012 12:22 PM

Hmmm. Zygotes are persons entitled to "equal
protection" under the law, even though the Fourteenth Amendment
specifically says “All person born”. So now, if a life exists at this
early stage, how are we going to know if it is still there or was there?
Will VA require all women each month to submit the remains of their menses to
the state to try and determine if a "life" oops I mean
"person" every existed. Currently, it is estimated that 1
out of 3 pregnancies are spontaneously aborted (common term miscarriage),
often before a woman even knows she was pregnant. And to go one step
further, as this law would require, once it was determined by an examination of
the menses, that a person existed, a cause of death, and possible charges
against the perpetrator of the death of the person must be considered. On
the positive side, this law will open up a plethora of business
opportunities for resourceful individuals to make millions, for they'll
need to produce special collection boxes for the menses, hundreds of businesses
will need to be started to gather the remains, to examine the evidence,
some sort of specialized “doctor” to fill out a "person form" when
evidence that a person had existed, as opposed to a 'birth certificate",
then a new kind of "death certificate" for these special
"persons" will be needed , as the current system of “death
certificates” are based upon a will not apply. Hey, this law might create
enough jobs in VA that the recession will end there! Maybe that is what
the Republicans meant after all! Brilliant!

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