Lori-

Anyone can complain to the State Medical Board about a doctor. If the doctor is found to have violated the standards of practice under state law, the Board of Medicine can discipline the doctor, up to and including revocation of license. However, providing a third trimester abortion is not prama facie evidence of of such a violation- standards exist (I believe in Kansas there is a requirement for two unrelated physicians and a psychologist to concur that carrying the fetus to term would risk significant medical and/or emotional harm to the mother). I realize that Operation Rescue may have filed such a complaint, but I believe there have been multiple such complaints filed against Tiller, and all have found to have been without merit. So to say “he was about to lose his license” is wishful thinking at best.

The review of Dr. Tiller files in his criminal trlal showed that he was following the law. The psychiatrist Phil Kline brought in to review files where mental health issues were the justification disagreed in some cases. However, he is a very active pro-lifer, and thus you would have to admit he is not an “impartial” expert. Despite this, Dr. Tiller was acquitted. You don’t agree- fine. But he is not a “criminal” or a “baby killer”- he is an individual accused of, and acquiited of, a crime. (I think OJ Simpson killed his wife, but the State of California disagreed, and I wasn’t the presiding judge….)

Biogenesis simply states that “life comes from life” referring to Pasteur and other who showed that maggots did not come from rotting dead meat as was originally believed, but from the eggs planted in the meat by flies. (In other words, live things come from live things). You are re-using the concept in another way, saying that a fertilized embryo is a person in a legal and moral sense because it comes from human DNA. Personhood is not a “scientific” concept, but a moral and legal one. At what point do the maggots become flies? When they grow wings and fly off? At what point is a fetus a person? The current state of the law is when it is viable on its own (and in the spirit of fairness, I’ll give you 28 weeks even thjough it can’t survive without massive, high-tech medical support. Is a poor African woman’s preemie less “human” than your daughter, simply because you had access to a higher level of technology? If I scape a piece of your daughter’s skin and begin to grow it in a Petri solution, is this a “person”? Can I bill you for the costs, as you are her “mother” under your definition…These are not scientific questions, and can’t be answered by a testable scientic hypothesis and experiment. They are questions of BELIEF.

You can believe what you want, and it is a legitimate and honorable position. But you make yourself look bad and devalue that position when you play language games and mis-use science to try to “prove” something which is by definition not subject to proof. Want the ultimate example? Prove God exists. Can’t be done. Nor can it be proven He doesn’t exist. You choose to believe in him and act according to his laws because that is what “feels” right to you. (And I truly hope that to so brings you peace and joy) But it’s not subject to proof. The point I made about your faith and your pro-life positions are that both are things that you believe. The error is your attempt to “prove” they are true. I accept your beliefs and I hope you would accept mine. I hope someday the world is a place where no woman is pregnant when being so isn’t her choice, and instead of happiness it brings her misery and danger. Until then, I will work to keep abortion safe, legal, and as rare as humanly (and Divinely) possible. I would challenge you on this one thing. Become active in Planned Parenthood, 97% of whose activities are in the PREVENTION of abortion! (It’s called family planning or contraception). Prove to me you can deal with the complexity of the problem and try to make the problem better. In the real world, the way that real problems ARE made better- through time and hard work. You seem sincere, and I want to believe that you are. Can you prove it?