1
LIFE BEGINS
AT
FERTILIZATION
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John
Willke with A Life
Issue: (Listen
Now)
Is the human embryo
alive at
fertilization?
Well, “alive” means
that this being is
growing, developing, maturing and replacing its own dying cells.
It means “not being dead”.
So, yes, of course,
the human embryo is
alive. If he wasn’t alive he couldn’t keep growing. That
unique, individual human life begins at fertilization. Did you
know that the developing baby has several extra parts to his
body?
He has his own space
capsule, the amniotic
sac. He has his own lifeline, the umbilical cord, and his own
root system, the placenta.
These all develop from
the original cells of
the baby and belong to him only, not to his mother. And they’re
all discarded after birth when no longer needed. I’d like you to
think about that. This is Dr. John Willke. (TOC)
2
SINGLE CELL
BEGINNING
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John
Willke with A Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Some claim that a
fertilized ovum is just a
blueprint. This is an effort to demonstrate that it’s not yet a
complete human.
Consider as an example
the blueprint of your
home. It was merely the plan for the builder. Using this
design, the craftsmen brought together many different building
materials, assembled them, and ultimately you had a house. The
blueprint, then, could be thrown away.
But when you were
built as a human being it
was quite a different story.
The single cell, who
you once were, was not a
blueprint, you were, in fact, the entire “house”, in minutea, and all
you did was grow up. The only thing that was added to that single
cell was nutrition, oxygen, and, of course, time. You were then
everything you are today. This is Dr. John Willke.
(TOC)
3
WHEN IS IT “HUMAN”
LIFE?
Life Jewels
Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with A Life Issue: (Listen Now)
There are many who claim that at fertilization that
new being was not
yet human.
“Human” means being a member of the biological
species, and is unique
and different from all other living beings in that this being has 46
human chromosomes in every cell. It doesn’t belong to the rabbit
family, or the carrot family. It belongs to the human
family.
Anyone who claims that what grows within the woman is
not human is
either woefully uninformed or is trying to twist an obvious scientific
fact to fit their own value system and political agenda.
Clearly this being was fully human already at the
first cell
stage. This question is simply not controversial. I’d like
you to think about that. This is Dr. John Willke. (TOC)
4
PERSONHOOD
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with A Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Is the unborn human a
person? To answer
that, let’s ask a different question: What do you mean by
“person”?
The dictionary defines
“person” in a dozen
different ways. Yellowstone Park is a person. So is General
Motors. So are you. The U.S. Supreme Court said, legally,
you’re only a person after birth. But other countries rule you to
be a legal person as early as conception, frequently at 3 months, and
most of them by 6 months.
Theologians often
define “person” as beginning
when the soul is created. Philosophers give is multiple
meanings. So what to do? In discussing abortion, I think
it’s best to use the very clear words “human life”. I’d like you
to think about that. This is Dr. John Willke. (TOC)
5
FETAL HEART
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with A Life Issue: (Listen Now)
The fetal heart begins
to beat at 18
days.
That means, when the
mother’s only four days
late missing her first menstrual period, at that time, the tiny heart
has already begun to beat. In another three days it will begin to
pump, through a closed circulatory system, a blood type differing from
that of the mother.
How early can your
obstetrician let you listen
to your baby’s heart? Well, it varies a bit, but we can almost
always find it on our ultrasonic stethoscopes at about the time she’s
missing her second period.
My wife and I have
lectured in over 60
countries and throughout the U.S. for three decades, and you know
what?
Abortionists never let
the mother hear that
heartbeat. I’d like you to think about that. This is Dr.
John Willke. (TOC)
6
BRAIN WAVES
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John
Willke with A Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Did you know that
human brain waves have been
recorded as early as 40 days after conception?
World-wide, in all
fields of intellectual
discipline, everyone agrees that one of the absolute measures of the
end of human life is the ending of human brain waves. Wouldn’t it
be refreshing if all of those same people would also agree that human
life begins when you can first record human brain waves?
Now, we know that life
begins at conception,
and we want to protect all lives from that beginning. But, even
so, if this simple, proven, scientific fact alone were accepted, and
the logical conclusion is drawn from it, three-fourths or more of
today’s abortions would be eliminated. I’d like you to think
about that. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
7
GRASP REFLEX
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John
Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
We've all marveled at
newborn infants and their strong ability to grasp your little finger,
if you place them in the palm of the infant's hand.
The baby will
tighten up, hold on to your finger, even making it possible sometimes
for you to pull that baby up almost to her feet.
This is a "grasp"
reflex, and it's present in the developing baby inside of the mother
already at 8 weeks after conception. After the mother has missed her
second menstrual period, if you place an instrument in the palm of that
baby's hand, she'll grab it and hang on.
And, you know, in
order to do
this, that hand, muscles and nerves, have to be pretty well developed.
But they're all there at 8 weeks. I'd like you to think about that.
This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
8
FETAL PAIN
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Just after a mother
has
missed her second menstrual period, her developing baby is 8 weeks old.
If, at this age, you
stick him with a needle
in the palm of his hand,
he will pull his tiny hand away. In order to do this, his little body
has already had to develop nerve fibers running from the hand to the
base of the brain and back.
This same withdrawal
reflex that pulled
your finger off a hot stove, and made a newborn cry when you stuck her
with a pin, these same nerve fibers and their functioning neural reflex
is already there at 8 weeks.
Did you feel pain from
the burner? Did the
infant feel pain from your probe?
If you say yes, then
you have to
admit that the unborn infant felt pain too. I'd like you to think about
that. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
9
FINGERPRINTS
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
When is the human body
so
well developed it already has fingerprints?
Well, that landmark is
passed at 10 weeks after conception inside the womb. At that stage you
were so tiny you could have stood on your daddy's little fingernail,
but your body was already so perfectly formed that you had
fingerprints.
At ten weeks, mother
has not yet missed her
third period,
and yet you were already in every way a tiny, tiny boy or girl. Not
many people know the human is so fully formed this early. But, let me
tell you, this is a time to remember.
At 10 weeks the
structure of the
human body is completely formed, even down to such find developmental
details as fingerprints and toeprints. I'd like you to think about
that. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
10
3 MONTH
MILESTONE
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
When you were
developing
inside of your mother, when did you begin to swallow?
When did your
stomach begin to extract nutrients from the build swallowed? And when
did you begin to slowly breathe fluid in and out of your lungs?
Well,
all of this began at 3 months. Why breathe so early?
In order to
develop your lungs and chest so that you could suddenly breathe more
rapidly when you came out into the air world. You see, any function
that the body of a newborn performs at birth, that little body was
performing already inside the mother before birth and often for many
months.
At this 3-month stage
all of the organ systems
had begun to
function. No, they weren't mature yet, but all were functioning. I'd
like you to think about that. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
11
DO THE UNBORN
DREAM?
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Can an unborn baby
dream?
Interesting question, isn't it?
When we sleep as
adults, we go slowly
through four deepening phases of slumber. One phase is characterized as
REM sleep – that's R-E-M. It's during this phase that we experience
“rapid eye movement”.
It's during this time
of REM sleep that we
dream.
Using sophisticated ultra-sound techniques, it has been demonstrated
that human fetal babies do have REM sleep, and as early as 17 weeks
after conception. Since REM sleep is characteristic of dream states
after birth, researches have asked if the unborn child also dreams.
Obviously we don't
have the answer to this,
and perhaps we never will.
But, if in fact tiny developing babies do dream, I wonder what they
dream about? This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
12
VIABILITY
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
There are 40 weeks in
a
pregnancy. Fifty years ago a baby surviving at 30 weeks was cause for
great joy and curiosity.
But now it's almost
routine. Twenty-five years
ago baby's were surviving as early as 25 weeks but they were rare.
Today 30% or more of 25-weekers will make it. And now we have a
survivor at 20 weeks, with several at 21.
But, think a minute --
the
babies haven't changed. Mothers are making the same king of babies they
always did. What has changed is the sophistication of the external life
support systems around the baby.
And the wonderful
thing is, as that
sophistication increases in years ahead, we'll probably be saving them
earlier still. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
13
ADOPTION
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John
Willke with A Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Should an expectant
mother keep the baby or
place him or her for adoption? In counseling her, you must think
of her future, her emotions and needs, and what she wants to do.
But we must also
continue to gently remind her
that there’s another life here, and what is best for this new life
she’s brining into the world.
Can she provide the
love, the care, hopefully
a father, education, for this little one?
Perhaps the most
loving thing she’ll ever do
in her life is to love that baby so much that she places the child in a
pair of loving arms, and to have those arms give to that child so many
of the things that she herself cannot give. I’d like you to think
about that. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
14
“HEALTH”
EXCEPTION
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
What exactly does it
mean
when we say that abortion should be allowed for “health reasons”?
Well,
the word health has been specifically defined in law by the U.S.
Supreme Court in its 1973 Roe vs. Wade
and Doe vs.
Bolton cases
legalizing abortion.
Our courts defined the
use of the word and
clearly
ruled that “health” included “all factors-physical, emotional,
psychological, familial, as well as taking into account the woman's
age.”
Now this sweeping
definition has been observed
around the world.
Abortion for health means that abortion is allowed, on demand, for
social and economic reasons.
In the United States
this specific
definition of health has permitted abortion until birth in all 50
states. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
15
RAPE
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
The U.S. Department of
Justice has reported approximately 100,000 assault rapes each year in
the United States.
Further polling
indicates that there's
probably one
completed rape not reported for every one that is. So, of those 200,000
forcible rapes, how many result in a pregnancy?
All investigations how
that pregnancy from assault rape is extremely rare - - probably about
one in a thousand - - certainly no more than one in 500.
In the entire
United States, in one year, there are then probably only between 200
and 400 pregnancies from assault rape.
Now, each rape is a
tragedy, but
the point is that this number is only a tiny fraction of the numbers
claimed by pro-abortion people to justify ending a baby's life. This is
Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
16
FETAL
HANDICAP
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
May agree that our
nation is
to be warmly commended for its concern for the disabled already
born......special parking places, leveling curbs, transportation, and
other ways to provide special care.
But many of the same
people who
applaud this progress will agree to killing an unborn child because
he's disabled.
If we discover a child
to be disabled before
birth, many
would kill him because he's disabled. But if we have a person who is
disable after birth, we go to special lengths to take care of him
because he's disabled.
Why don't we treat
both of them the same way?
Same person, same
disability, same cure?
We're
really a bit
schizophrenic on this issue, aren't we? I'd like you to think about
that. This is Dr. John Wilke. (TOC)
17
JUDGING BY
APPERANCE
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
How would you feel if
you
were judged only for your intelligence or beauty?
Well, that's exactly
the aim of in vitro fertilization. It attempts to select the healthiest
and finest. In first Samuel 16, we recall that God doesn't judge
mankind from his appearance or lofty stature.
“No, the Lord has not
chosen one of these,” the prophet said, as Jesse lined up his handsome
sons. Samuel asks if any were missing. “Yes, the youngest, David, who
is tending the sheep.” “Send for him,” Samuel said. And when he came,
the Lord said, “”There, anoint him, for this is he.”
And so, today, if
we judge at all, it should be of mind and heart, not of mere physical
measurements. I'd like you to think about that. This is Dr. John
Willke.(TOC)
18
ABORTION
&
MISCARRIAGE
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John
Willke with A Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Why do some women
suffer more miscarriages
after an induced abortion?
Well, a major reason
is injury to the mouth of
the womb. For women who’ve been in labor with their first child
it takes 6, 12, 18 hours for the womb to open, as nature slowly
stretches it. But nature does it no harm, and after delivery, it
closes tight again.
In the early months,
for an abortion, the
abortionist is faced with a long, hard, unripe cervix., and he
stretches it open in two or three minutes, frequently tearing some of
that “doughnut” muscle, weakening it.
Then, when a woman
becomes pregnant again,
sometimes that weakened muscle opens early and the result is a
miscarriage, or a premature birth. It’s just one more reason why
we shouldn’t interfere with nature. This is Dr. John Willke. (TOC)
19
IS TEEN
PREGNANCY SAFE?
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
A common argument for
aborting a teen pregnancy is that that pregnancy would be dangerous for
the young woman.
Now, I'm in no way
advocating teen pregnancy,
but it
is important to know that a teenage girl, bearing and delivering a
child, should have no more physical complications than a more mature
woman.
In fact, the odds for
a normal delivery might
even be more
favorable. If the girl's body is mature enough to great pregnant, her
body is mature enough to carry a baby to term and deliver normally.
There is a question,
though. And that question
is one of the adequate
prenatal care. Is that's not available, she may well have more
problems.
The bigger issue is
the choice of aborting
based on the
notion that it's dangerous for a teenager. I'd like you to think about
that. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
20
POST ABORTION
SYNDROME
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with A Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Perhaps 20%, or more,
of women who have had
abortion experience major psychological problems. These include
guilt feelings, dreams and nightmares, flashbacks, an inability to
enjoy holding a baby, loss of ability to enjoy sex with her husband,
and many other problems. She may take refuge in alcohol or drugs
in order to avoid the dreams and the feelings of guilt.
She may have reactions
on the anniversary date
of the abortion. Clinical depression is fairly common, and a
number of these women attempt suicide. You may be suffering from
this kind of destructive aftermath of an abortion.
And if you are, by all
means, seek help, or if
you know someone who’s suffering, reach out with love and tenderness
and by all means seek assistance at your local pregnancy help
center. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
21
A WANTED
CHILD
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
I'm sure you've head
the
slogan – “Every child a wanted child”. It's been popularized around the
world by Planned Parenthood.
But I suggest we ask
them to complete the
sentence. And if they did, here's how it would sound:
“Every child a
wanted child, and if not wanted, kill.”
Their answer to an
unwanted
pregnancy is to kill that innocent little one. I'm sure, at a
superficial glance, that some people agree, imagining future poverty,
violence, suffering and crime.
But who can predict
this? Since when
does anyone's right to live depend upon someone else wanting them?
Since when do we solve
poverty by killing poor
people? That's an
incredibly evil ethic! I'd like you to think about that. This is Dr.
John Willke.(TOC)
22
UNWANTED
EQUALS?
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
You've all heard again
and
again the line - - “An unwanted pregnancy produces an unwanted child.”
But, you know, that's
just not true.
Everyone assumed it
was true, and
many researchers sought to prove it. And there were a good dozen major
studies done internationally before abortion was legalized.
But every
study came to the same conclusion:
Wanted pregnancies and
unwanted
pregnancies produced the very same ratio of dearly loved children and
of unwanted and neglected children.
Friends, completely
aside from the
ethic involved, you'd be stupid to kill a baby because it is judged to
be an unwanted pregnancy.
With that logic, you'd
kill just as many
kids, who in the future will be loved and cherished, as you would those
less fortunate. I'd like you to think about that. This is Dr. John
Willke.(TOC)
23
RIGHT TO
“CHOOSE”
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Does a woman have the
right to choose
abortion?
It’s an effective
question, to be sure.
But your first response could well be, “Well, what is her choice?”
When a woman is
pregnant, she’s going to have
a baby. I’m a physician, and I’ve never yet examined a woman who
was only a little bit pregnant. This just happens to be a
progressive, nine-month procedure. So what is her choice?
Her only choice is,
how is the baby coming
out...alive or dead; in many pieces,
or whole?
And so her choice is a
choice to kill...for
life or death. It’s my hope and prayer that she’d made a choice
for life. And we can help her by loving both mother and
baby. I’d like you to think about that. This is Dr. John
Willke.(TOC)
24
CONVENIENCE
ABORTIONS?
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
You've heard the
phrase,
“convenience abortions”?
Please – my advice is
never say, or even
infer, that there's such a thing.
When a woman hears
this, she gets
angry, turns you off. Even the most blase' woman remembers abortion as
a painful decision.
Rather, let her know
that you stand with her,
not
against her...that you understand the agony of her decision...that you
want to help her...that perhaps it's time to begin discussing
constructive alternatives, like adoption.
And then?
Then it's time to
put your arm around her shoulder and tell her you understand, that you
want to help. A little one-liner here says it all - - “Why can't we
love them both?” You might even change her mind. This is Dr. John
Willke.(TOC)
25
PREGNANCY A
“DISEASE”?
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Did you know that the
former
head of abortion surveillance at the U.S. Center for Disease Control
suggested in a medical journal article a sliding scale of changes for
doing an induced abortion.
He would measure the
size of the fetal foot
and increase the charge proportionately. He also published another
medical journal article on sexually transmitted diseases.
In it he
reported that gonorrhea was the most common disease. And the second
most common “disease”, according to his analysis was pregnancy.
In that
article he discussed how it's “caught” and then gave details on its
“cure”.
And the suggested cure
for the “disease” or
pregnancy? What was
that? Well, abortion, of course. I'd like you to think about that. This
is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
26
PLANNED
PARENTHOOD
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
There was a time when
Planned Parenthood did a certain amount of good.
But today the good is
far overshadowed by a bad agenda.
It is the best
financed, most
powerful and most effective force for the destruction of the family and
the killing or unborn babies in our nation and throughout the world.
It
educates your children to a promiscuous lifestyle, equips them with
contraceptives that sooner or later fail, and then kills the babies
that have been conceived.
Ten percent of all
abortions in the United
States are done inside a Planned Parenthood abortion chamber.
Another
10% are referred to other killing centers. I'd like you to think about
that. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
27
MARGARET
SANGER
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
Margaret Sanger is
considered the “patron saint” of Planned Parenthood.
Her personal
lifestyle was sexually promiscuous. What of her policies? She said, and
I quote: “The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its
infant members is to kill it.”
She also said, “The
marriage bed is the
most degenerating influence in the social order.”
She wanted to stop
the growth of Jews, Catholics, Southern Europeans and blacks.
She said,
“We do not want the word to get out that we want to exterminate the
Negro population. If we must have welfare, give it to the rich, not the
poor.”
Margaret Sanger saw
her birth control efforts
as a mechanism
used by social elitists to keep down numbers of what she saw as the
lower echelons of society. She was hardly a saint. This is Dr. John
Willke.(TOC)
28
RU
486/
METHOTREXATE
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
The French abortion
pill, RU
486, is not a contraceptive.
It does not prevent
pregnancy. It's not
used until a woman is at least one week late missing her first period,
and by this time the baby is at least 3 weeks old and has a beating
heart.
The effect of RU
486?
It prevents this tiny
life from getting
sufficient hormonal nourishment and thereby directly kills this little
one.
Another drug,
Methotrexate, is a
chemotherapeutic drug, a cellular
poison used to kill cancer cells. This dangerous drug is not being used
in an attempt to kill this precious little one without also killing the
mother.
Both of these are
abortion drugs. Neither is a
contraceptive.
Each one kills a developing baby whose heart has begun to beat. This is
Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
29
RU
486 & DEFORMITY
Life Jewels Volume 1 1996
This is Dr. John Willke with a Life Issue: (Listen Now)
The purpose of the
highly
toxic drug, RU
486, is to kill a developing baby.
It is given at the
most vital
time or organogenesis, that is, when the fingers and toes and heart are
being built. In about 5% of the cases it fails to kill, bit it still
does serious damage to the tiny developing baby.
If that drug's on the
market, there will be women who, having taken the drug and failed to
abort, will change their minds and carry to term.
Some didn't
understand. Some took the wrong dose. Others were talked out of it.
The
result? A child born very likely with serious limb or organ
deformities. And that's one of the big reasons why no major drug
company will manufacture or sell this drug. I'd like you to think about
that. This is Dr. John Willke.(TOC)
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