Vi-a-ble: able to live; specifically, at that stage of development that will permit it to live outside of the uterus: said of a fetus or a prematurely born infant.

Many of those lacking the courage to oppose abortion at every stage of an unborn child’s development hang their hat on the issue of viability.  They try to justify the unjustifiable by taking the position that a child that hasn’t developed to the point that it can survive outside its mother’s body can be killed on demand.  They conveniently brush aside the fact that the unborn child, from the moment of conception, is a living human being.  Viability is an inexact determination and a fatally flawed premise on which to base the legal execution of an innocent child.

An unborn child, totally dependent on its mother for survival, is no less human and no less alive than the mother, and deserving of the same protections as the mother, whether it has developed to the point of viability or not.  A society that allows millions of human beings to be killed, and sanctions the killings based on the human beings’ stage of development, is traveling down a very slippery slope.  At what point do we decide that someone is too young or too old to exercise their Right to life?  At what point do we stretch the definition of viability to include children who were born years ago?

My 2 grandsons, aged 1 and 3, are viable by any standard.  They are happy, healthy children, but neither could survive a week without the love, care, and support of their family and others.  Does their stage of development make them candidates for post-birth abortion since they haven’t developed to the point that they can survive on their own?  At nearly 61 years old I’m in the best shape of my life, but I know the clock is ticking.  At what point will a society that allows Planned Parenthood and the like to kill human beings for money determine that I am no longer viable and unfit to express my Right to life?

The act of living is done so without regard for human judgments of viability or worthiness.  It is set into motion by a power beyond our comprehension and represents at once the most powerful yet fragile force in the Universe.  Life is its Creator’s manifest intention of His greatest gift.  Life is meant to flourish, not to be cut short on the whims of human discretion and political expediency.  Viability and worthiness are human concepts applied to Divine creations.  The gift of life is not granted by mistake.  Every new life is created on purpose for a purpose.

Every life counts and every life is equally as priceless as any other.  When we take it upon ourselves to determine who should live and who should die we become the judge, jury, and executioner of anyone we feel doesn’t deserve the same rights we enjoy.  When we cloth these judgments in words like viability and worthiness we do so at our own peril.