People care about embryonic hearts
[This article is a transcript of “People care about embryonic hearts” courtesy of volunteer Ben Tomlin. If you’re interested in volunteering to transcribe more of our content, please complete our volunteer survey.]
Video also available on TikTok.
So, whenever I talk about embryonic hearts there’s usually a few people who push back, both actually pro-life and pro-choice people, who push back because, they argue, hearts don’t determine personhood. Yeah, I agree with you. I don’t talk about embryonic hearts because I think having a heart makes you a morally valuable person. I talk about embryonic hearts because they matter to a lot of people, whether they make you a morally valuable person or not.
I think there are a lot of people on the other side, pro-choice activists in particular, who subtly recognize this, which is why they have spent so much time trying to convince the public that embryos don’t have hearts. I think they do this because discussions of hearts and heartbeats directly undermines the “clump of cells” rhetoric.
I think there are a lot of people who don’t know much about fetal development, because why would they, and they mistakenly believe that the embryo is literally like a sphere of cells for much longer than is the case. And I think that the more we talk about fetal development, the more uncomfortable people get with abortion. It doesn’t mean it’s because they think that any given point in fetal development suddenly makes the embryo a person.
The fact is there are a whole lot of people who find the entire personhood conversation a tangent, even an excuse. There are a whole lot of people who think that being a member of our species, a biological human, is important. You might not be one of those people, that’s okay, but that doesn’t mean no one else feels that way, and that doesn’t mean you have the authority to tell people what matters to them and what doesn’t.
Once or twice a year we ask people if they used to be pro-choice and they became pro-life what changed their mind. One of the biggest recurring themes is people who experience pregnancy or pregnancy loss or having children, and in the process they learn a lot more about fetal development, and they are shocked. Many of them say specifically it was the heartbeat that changed their mind.
Maybe the heartbeat doesn’t matter to you. Okay. It matters to them, so I’m going to keep talking about it.
If you appreciate our work and would like to help, one of the most effective ways to do so is to become a monthly donor. You can also give a one-time donation here or volunteer with us here.
