Tea at Trianon: If You’re a Clump of Cells, Read This

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, August 18, 2025

If You’re a Clump of Cells, Read This

From The Feminist Turned Housewife:

The modern abortion debate is dominated by slogans, like teams on a soccer field, everyone supporting their side. On one side: “My body, my choice.” On the other: “Life begins at conception.” These lines divide us, but they don’t resolve the question at the heart of the matter: What is the moral status of the unborn human being, and what obligations do we owe it? If the unborn is not a person, abortion is a private medical choice with no more moral exposure than removing a tooth. If the unborn is a person, abortion is the deliberate killing of an innocent member of the human family, and no appeal to autonomy, convenience, or hardship can convert that act into a moral good.
Any serious treatment of abortion rests on analyzing these three pillars:
1. Biology — What, precisely, is the entity in the womb?
2. Philosophy — On what basis do humans possess equal worth and rights?
3. Moral reasoning — How do universal ethical principles apply to abortion, including hard cases?
When these pillars are objectively examined, they conclude: abortion is biologically undeniable (the unborn is a living human organism), philosophically indefensible (equal worth cannot be grounded in traits that come in degrees), and morally inexcusable (it intentionally kills the innocent).
In the following paragraphs are my attempts at addressing all points regarding this very important question. Abortion is objectively evil and must be stopped.
Here are my arguments and thoughts as to why:
I. The Biological Reality — The Unborn Is a Human Being from Conception
We begin at embryology. The question here is not “What do you value?” but “What is in there?”
1) Fertilization: the first moment of a new human organism. From the first cell cycle, this tiny clump isn’t freeloading. It’s got a to-do list longer than yours and mine, divide, implant, signal, grow organs, start a heartbeat. Honestly, it’s the busiest overachiever in the room
Fertilization is a discrete, definable event. A sperm penetrates the oocyte; male and female pronuclei fuse; a single-celled zygote forms. That zygote:
• possesses a complete, species‑specific human genome (barring anomalies),
• is genetically and epigenetically unique (not the mother, not the father),
• initiates a self-directed developmental trajectory (cleavage → morula → blastocyst → implantation → gastrulation → organogenesis).
From the first cell cycle, the embryo is not a mere cell cluster; it is an organism, an integrated whole that coordinates its own growth. “Potential life” is the wrong category. The zygote is an actual life with the potential to unfold its capacities. We do not call an infant a “potential toddler.” We say the infant is a human being at an early stage. Identity persists; properties develop if allowed to do so.
2) Life criteria and the organism test
Biology recognizes life by functions like metabolism, growth, response to stimuli, and cellular reproduction. The embryo exhibits them. But beyond functions, organismal status matters: is this an integrated, self‑organizing whole or a disordered mass? A tumor proliferates, but it is not a whole directed toward mature form; an embryo is.
3) Distinctness from the mother
The “part of my body” claim fails empirically. The embryo has its own DNA, often its own blood type, and about half the time a different sex (a Y chromosome the mother does not possess). The placenta is not a merger but an interface; circulations remain distinct. The mother shelters. Speaking of “one body” is poetic, not physiological, and certainly not scientific either. (Read more.)