HHS is only accepting comments on "life begins at conception" language through today.
HHS is only accepting comments on this language through today. Please email them and tell them to base their language and policies on science: HHSPLan@hhs.gov
Why the Department of Health and Human Services should stop saying life begins at conception
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services released a draft of its latest strategic plan, which will guide the agency from 2018 to 2022. Near the top of the document, the agency presents its mission statement: HHS activities “cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception” (the emphasis is mine).
This is a religious definition of life, not a scientific one. Health and Human Services is a government organization. Its actions should be evidence-based, not faith-based, and this decidedly unscientific language should be eliminated from its strategic plan.
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From a scientific perspective, life doesn’t begin at any one point, it is a continuum. For HHS to define it as beginning at conception is a transparent attempt to justify restrictions on certain contraceptives as well as abortion. It may also have an unintended consequence: the restriction of infertility treatments, especially in vitro fertilization.
Now nearly 40 years old, IVF has revolutionized infertility treatment. More than 7 million babies have been born worldwide as a direct result of this technology, though it fails as often as it succeeds. If a pre-implantation embryo were to be considered a human being, then its lack of implantation during IVF would logically have to be considered a human death. Fertility clinics would not be able to function if they could be accused of harming human life in the process of trying and failing to achieve a successful pregnancy.
A preimplantation embryo has the theoretical potential to become a human life, but it cannot be considered on the same moral plane as a human life. We should insist that the Department of Health and Human Services be driven by science and data, not faith-based belief. All those concerned with the unscientific nature of the current HHS strategic plan draft have until Oct. 27 to email their comments to HHSPLan@hhs.gov. We need to embrace the founders’ doctrine of separation of church and state, to keep faith and religion separate from the administration of our nation’s healthcare.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-paulson-when-life-begins-20171026-story,amp.html
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