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Such is life,

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Question : When does life begin ?

Reply (the astrophysicists) : On earth, it began about 3.7 billion years ago.

Question : At which point in time does an individual’s life begin ?

Reply 1. (Thomas Howell in New Sonnets and pretty Pamphlets, 1570) :

« Counte not thy Chickens that vnhatched be,
Waye wordes as winde, till thou finde certaintee »

Reply 2. (Samuel Butler’s poem “Hudibras”, 1664) :

« To swallow gudgeons ere they're catch'd,
And count their chickens ere they're hatched »

Reply 3. (proverbial words of advice that have withstood the test of time, 2018) :

« Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched »

Remark : And you can’t Christen “chickens” before they’re hatched can you ?
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« A Bush Christening » :

On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,
And men of religion are scanty,
On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost,
One Michael Magee had a shanty.

Now this Mike was the dad of a ten-year-old lad,
Plump, healthy, and stoutly conditioned;
He was strong as the best, but poor Mike had no rest
For the youngster had never been christened,

And his wife used to cry, "If the darlin' should die
Saint Peter would not recognise him."
But by luck he survived till a preacher arrived,
Who agreed straightaway to baptise him.

Now the artful young rogue, while they held their collogue,
With his ear to the keyhole was listenin',
And he muttered in fright while his features turned white,
"What the divil and all is this christenin'?"

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(Continued …)

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(Continued …)

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He was none of your dolts, he had seen them brand colts,
And it seemed to his small understanding,
If the man in the frock made him one of the flock,
It must mean something very like branding.

So away with a rush he set off for the bush,
While the tears in his eyelids they glistened-
"'Tis outrageous," says he, "to brand youngsters like me,
I'll be dashed if I'll stop to be christened!"

Like a young native dog he ran into a log,
And his father with language uncivil,
Never heeding the "praste" cried aloud in his haste,
"Come out and be christened, you divil!"

But he lay there as snug as a bug in a rug,
And his parents in vain might reprove him,
Till his reverence spoke (he was fond of a joke)
"I've a notion," says he, "that'll move him."

"Poke a stick up the log, give the spalpeen a prog;
Poke him aisy-don't hurt him or maim him,
'Tis not long that he'll stand, I've the water at hand,
As he rushes out this end I'll name him.

"Here he comes, and for shame! ye've forgotten the name-
Is it Patsy or Michael or Dinnis?"
Here the youngster ran out, and the priest gave a shout-
"Take your chance, anyhow, wid 'Maginnis'!"

As the howling young cub ran away to the scrub
Where he knew that pursuit would be risky,
The priest, as he fled, flung a flask at his head
That was labelled "Maginnis's Whisky!"

And Maginnis Magee has been made a J.P.,
And the one thing he hates more than sin is
To be asked by the folk who have heard of the joke,
How he came to be christened "Maginnis"!

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Yep to call the unborn baby is as scientific as calling a jew a pig. Disgraceful with biology again ignored by the killers.

//Yep to call the unborn baby is as scientific as...///

Use your words, runner.

Hi Loudmouth.

My day of conception seems to have been around late July. But I celebrate my birthday in April. A little interesting to look up, but not something I want too much detail on I guess.

As for rights of a man versus a woman about what to do with the pregnancy, I'm aware of the hard situation placed on many women. And this is in part what my reply to Toni Lavis was going to be on. Part of the problem is the willingness to have sex way too early in a relationship. Too often to have sex with no expectation of a relationship later. This feeds the dilemma of the burden on women. I get that, but how is it not sickening that death is one of the most accepted solutions. In my opinion a stronger sense of commitment should be taught to kids, for them to have before they are willing to have sex. In a culture where sex is expected way too early, I see casual sex as a problem. Not just for abortion reasons, but abortion is definitely one of the bigger reasons.

To David F.

I'm sorry if I asked a hard question regarding what might have influenced your cousin to commit suicide. I have been in a relationship that at the time meant so much to me, when it ended I had to fight against suicide as well. I don't know if this will help you or anyone else if you find them in a similar state of mind, but one of the reasons that held me away from that horrible decision was knowing how hard it is for parents to lose their children. So I reasoned it was a horrible thing to consider to willingly choose death and put my parents through that. That reason kept the action at bay long enough for life to move on and eventually get better for me.

Today I take suicide as a serious matter, and if anyone has insight about what situations trigger it, it might help in strengthening people against those issues earlier in their life, before the situation comes up and is hard to deal with at that time. That's largely why I asked, but I'm sorry if it was unfair to ask you.

As for fetus versus unborn baby/ unborn child. I I'll stick by my word choice. I think the term fetus is our culture trying to hide behind a medical term to distance themselves from the choice to kill. Ask a woman who's had a miscarriage. Did she lose a fetus? Or did she lose her baby? Or better still don't put her through that, but instead don't let yourself hide the matter behind a medical term, instead of calling it for what it really is. A fetus is the medical term for an unborn baby. There's no reason to shy away from it being known as an unborn baby.