on the catalogue of crime.

It is bad enough to cut down an enemy, to shoot him in the back; but
when it comes to slaying a victim as helpless as a babe, incapable of
entering a protest, innocent of all wrong save that of existing; when
even baptism is denied it, and thereby the sight of God for all
eternity; when finally the victim is one's own flesh and blood, the
language of hell alone is capable of qualifying such deeds.

Do not say there is no injustice. Every innocent human being, at every
stage of its existence, from the first to the last, born or unborn, has
a natural and inalienable right to live, as long as nature's laws
operate in its favor. Being innocent it cannot forfeit that right. God
is no exceptor of persons; a soul is a soul, whether it be the soul of
a pontiff, a king or a sage, or the soul of the unborn babe of the last
woman of the people. In every case, the right to live is exactly the
same.

The circumstances, regular or irregular, of its coming into life, not
being of its own making, do not affect the right in the least. It
obeyed the law by which every man is created; it could not disobey, for
the law is fatal. Its presence therefore, cannot be morally obnoxious,
a crime on its part. Whether its presence is a joy or a shame, that
depends solely on the free act of others than itself; and it is for
them to enjoy the privilege or bear the disgrace and burden. That
presence may occasion poverty, suffering, it may even endanger life;
what if it does! Has a person in misfortune the right to strike down
another who has had no part in making that misfortune?

Life does not begin at birth, but precedes it; prenatal life is truly
life. That which is conceived, is; being, it lives as essentially as a
full-grown man in the prime of life. Being the fruit of humanity it is
human at every instant of its career; being human, it is a creature of
God, has an immortal soul with the image of the Maker stamped thereon.
And the veto of God, "Thou shalt not kill," protects that life, or it
has no meaning at all.

The psychological moment of incipient life, the instant marked by the
infusion of soul into body, may furnish a problem of speculation for
the savant; but even when certitude ends and doubt begins, the law of
God fails not to protect. No man who doubts seriously that the act he
is about to perform is a crime, and is free to act or not to act, is
anything but a criminal, if he goes ahead notwithstanding