MISSISSIPPI PERSONHOOD AT CONCEPTION

MOST CONCEPTIONS DO NOT SURVIVE MORE THAN 8 WEEKS

I would have voted "no" on this.  Yes, I am Catholic.  That does not mean that I confuse "life" with "personhood," to use the Mississippi term.  I have no pretension of being able to get very scientific about this, and I'm sure that you don't either.  So, all I want to do is to use some common sense here and strive to expose my thoughts on the matter.  I also want make it clear that these are not yesterday's thoughts, not even last year's thoughts.  I have entertained these for a long time.  All the way back into when I was in my early 30's and not anywhere near ever thinking that I would engender children.  Ya know, back during the Paul Revere days!
A} We all know that complete human fertilization takes about 2 to 5 days.  It is a process of maturation, of ripening, so to speak.  The Sperm and the Ovum feed one another into blossoming, so to speak.  When that blossoming happens, then there are no longer two separate realities, but one.  I believe, with most other people, both scientific and lay, that life has now begun. We are also all of one accord that it cannot result in anything but human life.
B} We also all believe that individuation has now begun to take place and is in fact on a one-way track where there is no "U-Turn."  The life that is now growing stronger at every moment will never be duplicated.  That doesn't mean that the life will survive the journey.  That doesn't even mean that the person carrying the life is even conscious of the process that has begun.  It doesn't even mean that at a given point the process may end without the host knowing that it had ever even taken pace.  The chart shows that only about 30% of conceptions make it to the 8 week stage.
C} By the time that the 8 week stage has been reached, there is no doubt that a fairly well developed individual has come to be.  By this time a certain bond has even begun to develop between the host (mother) and the life in the womb.  It won't be long after that, given the survival of the new life, that the mother will begin to notice patterns of behavior of the growing being.  In the case of women who have had multiple pregnancies, the distinct behavior patterns of different lives are vividly discernible 
D} It is about this time that I think that we can start talking about "personhood."  It is at about this time when caressing and fondling and warm emotions start to be exchanged between the mother and the life in the womb.  At a certain point the spirit of the mother, and even of the father, especially in an intimate, warm and loving matrimonial relationship, begins to influence the growing being in the womb.  [I don't want you to believe that I am forgetting the negative side of this.]  Of this, I am convinced.  Religiously, it is somewhere along the developmental path that I have laid down here that God intervenes and the being is no longer a simple animal life individual, but a truly complete human individual, fully defined creature of God.  Somewhere along this path, the "personalization" of the growing individual comes into existence.  So much so that it causes the embryo to act, maybe I should even say, behave, in its own particular way.   Now, the progress that everyone experiences and the outcome that we all hope for will result in a true human person outside the protection of the mother's body.
The impetus for my setting down my thoughts, as you all must realize is the ballot measure in Mississippi about "human personhood" occurring at conception.  This, in my opinion, is pure, non-distilled stercus taurorum.  "Life" is not the same as "Personhood."  They are two entertwined realities that are not identical, neither in being nor in the order of existence.  They are not even identical in any true religious sense.  To make them identical and to put them together is forcing reality into a universe that doesn't exist.  
Now, let me just say something that will perhaps shock you, or offend you, but I'm going to venture there anyway.  There was a time when I did not believe in animal psychology.  Really.  I was nearly 40 years old before I was able to accept the reality of animals having a psychology.  I don't know why it took me so long.  Maybe it was because I was so proud of being a human that I couldn't see God giving something as "precious" as a psychology to animals.  Then, from there, I was forced to admit that some of these animals even have individual behavior patterns (personalities?  Hmmm!).
I consider this an important moment in my life.  The lesson I learned was precisely that life and personhood and individuality are not perfectly identical and do not all happen at the same moment in the existence of any animal, human or otherwise.
So now you have my thought(s) for the day.  I apologize for the lack of humor this time around. But, I figure that you'll get over it. Before I leave, I have to leave you with two final pieces of me:  (1) Don't make the mistake of making religious conviction the only valid vision of reality that exists. See God in everything all the while realizing that everything is not God. (2) Don't start all your discussions about human existence with the word "abortion."  Believe it or not, there is more to our lives as human beings than "abortion."
Now that I have really heated you up, I know that you don't have to be reminded not to cry at MY funeral.