BiblicalInsights.net

The apostle Paul warns, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col. 2:8).  By “spoil” Paul means:  as when in war the spoils belong to the victor who takes what formerly belonged to his enemy.  In this passage, false ideas or doctrines can “take one captive” so that he/she is brought under the control of those false ideas.  Philosophy refers to the many various ideas that constitute the wisdom of this world.  Vain deceit is worthless lies.  The traditions of men are doctrines or concepts of men that have their origin in the minds of men as contrasted to the mind of God.  They become perilous to the soul whenever they contradict God’s Word or set at nought God’s Word.  The rudiments of the world refers to delusive speculations of Gentiles and Jewish theories or myths treated as elementary principles upon which a world view or philosophy of life may be based.  False ideologies are behind the social problems directly affecting marriage and the home today.  These false ideologies are creating conflict, social upheaval, social change, division, strife, agitation and destruction.  Let’s examine some of them.
The General Theory of Evolution
The General Theory of Evolution relates to biological evolution.  The theory of evolution involves: cosmic evolution, chemical evolution, and biological evolution.  The General Theory of Evolution is, “All living matter as we know it today had its origin from one primitive source.  From this spontaneously produced source, probably originating in the primeval ocean water from a combination of existing molecules and atoms, life began–and through eons of time, changes in this life form took place in a progressive manner.  From unicellular life came the more complicated invertebrate life, and from this, vertebrate life.  Finally, primitive man made his appearance and evolved into the human species of today.  (Bert Thompson, “Evolution as a Threat to the Christian Home”, in The Home As God Would Have It And Contemporary Attacks Against It, p. 276).  The General Theory of Evolution is a naturalistic explanation for the origins of human beings.  God is completely left out.  This would have profound effects on our own understanding of what it means to be human.  Human beings would be nothing but a higher form of animals.  They would not possess a soul (immortal aspect to their being) and would not be dualistic in their make-up (body and soul).  This would destroy the basis for morality.  Absolutely, anything would be permissible.  This would lead to a re-definition of marriage and the family (which is happening in our present culture).  The General Theory of Evolution and its cousin Theistic Evolution would destroy the very foundations of the home as God would have it.   Belief in God and His holy Word would be supplanted with secular humanism and the deification of man.
The Political/Social Theory of Communism
The General Theory of Evolution and Communism are both atheistic philosophies.  Karl Marx wrote, regarding Darwin’s Origin of the Species: “Darwin’s book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural history for a class struggle in history.  Not only is it a death blow here for the first time to teleology in the natural sciences, but their rational meaning is emphatically explained.” In fact, Marx wanted to dedicate his book, Das Kapital to Darwin, but Darwin declined the offer, fearing family objections.  Thus, Darwin gave considerable impetus to Communism, and today evolution is the official teaching of the Communist party in regard to origins” (Ibid, Thompson, p. 286). Communism is a political, social, and economic theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to his/her abilities and needs (Oxford Languages). Communism attacks religion and is a serious threat to religious freedom.  True religion is the basis of the Christian home.  Communists hold that man has no soul and no conscience.  Communism affirms materialism, totalitarianism, and socialism.   America is being infiltrated by communist philosophy through Cultural Marxism (see my book review of the Red Trojan Horse). One of the significant tenets of Cultural Marxism is relativity.  This false idea affirms that truth is not objective, but is subjective. The notion of relativity means that one can create his/her own reality while at the same time denying the objective truth of God’s word.   This has given rise to new definitions for marriage and the home.  Marriage is no longer defined as a monogamous, heterosexual relationship between a man and a woman.  The definition of marriage is much more fluid.  Also, the home is being redefined.  The concept of the nuclear family (Dad, Mom and the children) is being replaced with a much more fluid concept involving same sex relationships and transgendered relationships.
Feminism 
The National Organization for Women (NOW) in the booklet: The Document: Declaration of Feminism states: “Heterosexual relationships are by their very nature oppressive to women in a male dominated society.  In Western society sexual roles are defined for the benefit of men.  The woman is treated as a sexual object, a thing which exists for the gratification of the man to ensure his physical comfort and his sexual pleasure.  In the eyes of men this is a woman’s place—for Eve was created of Adam’s rib—or so the story goes” (Nancy Lehman and Helen Sullinger, The Document: Declaration of Feminism, p. 8).  Betty Friedan sees the role of the modern housewife as a “sickness, a disease…And most women can no longer use their full strength, grow to their full human capacity, as housewives” (Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique, p. 305).  This type of feminism attacks marriage (heterosexual relationships) and the home (women who love their children and their husbands) as God would have it (Matt. 19:1-9; Titus 2:1-5). Feminism has given us abortion, no-fault divorce, and destruction of male spiritual leadership in the home and the church (attack on patriarchy).  More recently, feminists have led in the separation of sex from gender which has produced gender fluidity and advanced both homosexuality and transgendered identities.  The idea that gender can be separated from one’s sex is the result of cultural relativism which advances the notion that gender is a social construct and not tied to one’s biological makeup.  Marriage has been redefined to include both homosexuals and the transgendered.
Hedonism
Hedonism is basically the love of pleasure.  The love of pleasure is condemned in God’s Word (II Tim. 3:1-5). Hedonism is behind the sexual revolution.  Hedonism involves the unrestricted indulgence of the lusts of the flesh.  Sexual relationships outside of the marriage relationship are forbidden by God and constitute fornication (Gal. 5:19-20).  Promiscuity in sexual relationships has produced “fatherless homes.”  The absence of the father in the home has significant consequences.  More women and children are living in poverty as a result. Government programs have expanded to help with shelter, food, medical assistance, counseling, and other needs.  With government assistance comes government control.  Promiscuity has produced an epidemic in sexually transmitted diseases.  Promiscuity has contributed to “unwanted pregnancies” where abortion is seen as a remedy and so abortions have taken the lives of more than 62 million unborn children since 1973 (FoxNews, Jan. 2021).  Promiscuity has contributed to a lack of respect for Christian values and so the secularization of America.  This was a primary goal of those who desired to uproot Christian moral values and replace them with hedonism as a way of undermining Western Culture and replace it with communism (a goal of Cultural Marxists: for example Herbert Marcuse.  Consider his work: Eros and Civilization written in 1955).  Pornography would have to be included in this study of the influence of hedonism on the home.  Pornography is a multi-billion dollar business in the world today.  Pornography is “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writings) intended to cause sexual excitement.” Carl Trueman in the Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, writes, “Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties.  It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other.  It does great injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public) since each becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others.  It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world.  It is a grave offense. It is rightly called a deathwork, “an all-out assault upon something vital to the established culture”(Rieff).  A deathwork is an attack on established cultural art forms in a manner designed to undo the deeper moral structure of society.  Pornography is an attack on marriage and exploits the sacred intimacy reserved for marriage alone and objectifies it and merchandizes it” (Trueman, pp. 96-97).
Secular Humanism
Secular Humanism is the belief that man has within himself sufficient resources to solve his problems without help from a supernatural power or person.  It involves supplanting God with self and so the deification of self.  Secular Humanism was formalized in two documents:  Humanist Manifesto I and Humanist Manifesto II (both of which express communist ideology).  These documents deny the existence of  God and denigrate true religion. They deny the existence of the human soul affirming that science discredits the “ghost in the machine or the “separable soul.”   They affirm that science believes that the human species is an emergence from natural evolutionary forces (Pat McGee, “Humanism As A Threat To Christian Marriages”, in The Home as God Would Have It and Contemporary Attacks Against It, p. 324). McGee rightly states that humanism has infiltrated America’s educational system, religious institutions, mass media, homes, and even some churches of Christ.  As secular humanism increases, the home in America decreases and suffers from its destructive forces.  When you destroy the sacred order, you also destroy the social order.  The home is the basic element of the fabric of society.  To change the home means that society will change.  Who can deny that Americans are facing the strong currents of social engineering that threaten to destroy the home as God would have it and replace it with a humanist constructed entity not worthy of the descriptive term “home.”  The result is a chaotic, unstable society that cannot hold together.
McGee states, “The first home was established by God and is, therefore a divine institution.  It is the basic social unit in all the world and in every society.  To lose the home is to eventually lose the country” (Ibid. 313).  While we are living in threatening times, Christians know the God in whom they believe is a rock, resource, strength, shelter and force that cannot be overthrown.  God’s Word is truth.  With God and His truth, we ourselves can triumph over the forces of evil that will consume others who do not believe in God nor trust in His Word.  Christians must stand strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might!

Steven Ertlelt wrote an article for lifenews.com titled, “Planned Parenthood CEO Confirms It will Not Stop Selling Body Parts From Aborted Babies” (Sept. 30, 2015).  In this article, he reveals that Cecile Richards admitted in her testimony before Congress that she is ‘proud’ of Planned Parenthood’s baby body parts harvesting program.  Planned Parenthood is responsible for expanding late-term abortions and  selling of baby body parts.
David Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, which was responsible for the series of 10 videos showing the abortion giant selling baby body parts states that the organization is not worthy of taxpayer funding.  Here are some excerpts from the ten videos:
1.  In the first video:  Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing.  “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
2.  In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.
3.  In the third video:  Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.
4.  In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200.  A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.”  She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”
5.  In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest i the United States.”
6.  In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted.  And these mothers don’t know.  And there’s no way they would know.
7.  In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “You want to see something kind of cool,'” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating.  And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
8.  In the eighth video:  StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer admits Planned Parenthood sells “a lot of fully intact aborted babies.”
9.  In the ninth video: catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies–including one who “just fell out” of the womb.
10.  The 10th video: catches the nation’s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts–including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies.  The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby parts for profit.
The total disregard for the value and sanctity of the lives of the unborn reaches a new low in these videos.  Certainly, such conduct is an abomination to the God of heaven.

A recent letter to the editor of the Columbus Dispatch touched on a word missing from our every day vocabulary.  Can you guess what it is?  The title of the letter was, “‘Sin’ disappeared from lexicon long ago.”  The letter pointed out that the high priests of journalism have “outlawed” the word “sin” from the common vernacular.  This prompts the question, “why?”
I would like to offer two reasons.   One reason lies in the psychological coping mechanism we call “denial.”  Denial is a psychological defense where we will not face reality, instead, we deny reality so that we will not have to deal with it or the pain that it brings.  Another reason is redefinition of truth.  When we define truth subjectively rather than objectively, everything is permissible.  The ideology called postmodernism does this.  If everything is permissible, then sin vanishes.
The Problem.
“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”  Rom. 3:23.  And, “the wages of sin is death…” Rom. 6:23.  Sin is a universal experience of mankind.  The consequences are serious both now and for eternity.  While some may deny the reality of sin, and others have redefined truth to make it disappear, the reality of sin keeps confronting us.  One way to force a realization of this is to look at the numbers. The price we pay for sin is enormous. Consider the following:
Internet Gambling.  The estimated social cost of internet gambling is 25 billion dollars per year. (Does God Exist, Jan./Feb. 2013, p. 27).
Alcoholism.  The cost of alcoholism to the American taxpayer is 43 billion dollars per year.  (Does God Exist, Jan./Feb. 2013, p. 29).
50% of all fatal accidents involve alcohol.
80% of all fire deaths.
65% of all drowning deaths.
40% of all assaults.
77% of falls.
55% of arrests.
Unwanted Pregnancies.  The annual cost to the American taxpayer of unwanted pregnancies is $11 billion dollars.  (Guttmacher Institute, Huffington Post.com, 5/24/2011).  Two-thirds of unintended pregnancies–a million births-are publicly funded by Medicaid and other government programs.
Addicted gamblers.  The costs associated with addicted gamblers in the U.S. is between 32.4 billion and 53.8 billion dollars a year.  This amounts to about $274 per adult annually.  Gambling in America, Baylor University professor Earl Grinols from dailyfinance.com., July 22, 2011).
Drug Abuse.  Substance abuse and addiction breaks down as follows:
Illegal drugs–118 billion a year.
Alcohol:  185 billion a year.
Tobacco:   193 billion a year.
Totals:   559 billion a year  (Drugabuse.gov  National Institute on Drug Abuse, 4/9/2013.
Sexually Transmitted Diseases.  Sexually transmitted diseases for Ages 15-24 costs $6.5 billion a year in 2000 dollars.  Among all age groups the cost go up to between $9.3 billion to $15.5 billion (includes HIV).  Guttmacher.org. Guttmacher Institute (Jan./Feb. 2004, vol. 36, no. 1).
Crime.  The annual cost of crime in the U.S. is $1.7 trillion dollars.  David A. Anderson, “The Aggregate Burden of Crime.”  This amounts to $4,118.00 per person in the U.S.  (David Anderson is professor of economics at Davidson College, North of Charlotte, North Carolina).
Divorce.  Family fragmentation costs:  $112 billion a year.  Benjamin Scafidi, J. Whitney Bunting School of Business at Georgia College and State University.  Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia.  “The Taxpayer Costs of Divorce and Unwed Childbearing” c. 2008 www.americavalues.org.
Pornography.  The financial costs to businesses productivity in the U.S. alone is estimated at $16.9 billion annually.  The human toll is far greater.  Webroot.com “Internet Pornography by the numbers; a significant threat to society.”  Consider some stats:
Every second 28,258 users are watching pornography on the internet.
Every second $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography on the internet.
40 million people in America regularly visit porn sites.
35% of all internet downloads are related to pornography.
One-third of porn viewers are women.
2.5 billion emails sent or received every day contain porn.
Abortion.  The normal cost of a first-trimester abortion runs between $350 to $550.  Guttmacher Institute www.guttmacher.org.  “In 2009, the median charge for a surgical abortion at 10 weeks gestation was $470.  The median cost of  a medication abortion was $490.  In 2008, 20% of all abortions were covered by Medicaid (State funded).  In 2008, there were about 1.2 million abortions performed in the U.S.  Total costs:  $112 million dollars.
The total costs exceed 2 trillion, 35 billion dollars!  And, these are just the financial costs.  May we add the emotional, psychological, social, and spiritual costs?
How can we deny the reality of sin when it is costing so much?  Why not let God define sin?  Sin is a transgression of the law of God (I John 3:4).
The Solution.
The first step is to face reality.  We must admit to ourselves and to God, “I am a sinner.”  This confession will produce guilt and shame if prompted by godly sorrow and move us to repent and turn to God.
The second step is to pursue the pathway of redemption and righteousness.  We must say, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.”  We must seek forgiveness from God who is the only source that has the power to remit sins.  We must yield to God’s Will for our lives.  We must repent.  Repentance involves a turning away from sin.  It involves a cessation of the practice of sin.  We must be baptized to “wash away our sins” (Acts 22:16; Acts 2:38).  And, we must pursue righteousness.  The way of righteousness is the strait and narrow way that leads to eternal life (Matt. 7:13-14).  The problem is sin.   The solution is “Christ in you and you in Christ.”

Please consider some of the facts about Planned Parenthood:
1.  Planned Parenthood has a net worth of over $1 billion.
2.  Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the United States.
3.  Planned Parenthood performs an abortion on over 91% of its pregnant clients.
4.  Planned Parenthood aborts over 300,000 babies a year.
5.  Planned Parenthood’s abortions:  over half of all aborted babies are girls–that is the real war on women!
(Statistics from Ohio Right To Life, spring, 2012).
46% of the revenue that Planned Parenthood receives comes from government health service grants and reimbursements.  The organization cannot legally use taxpayer dollars for an abortion, however, the agency does not segregate funds as it should and consequently, taxpayer dollars do go to support abortions.  Christianity Today reported in the February, 2012 issue that members of the pro-life group Live Action posed as a pimp and prostitute in hidden-camera missions designed to expose Planned Parenthood’s underbelly.  They asked for and received help from Planned Parenthood employees in four states to obtain abortions for the underage girls they supposedly “manage.”  Planned Parenthood aided underage sex trafficking by offering to provide the abortions.  Earlier this year, the House of Representatives voted to defund Planned Parenthood.  The amendment to defund Planned Parenthood lost in the Senate 42 to 58.  No Democratic Senator voted for defunding.  Eleven states have moved to eliminate or defund Planned Parenthood (Christianity Today, February, 2012, pp. 17-19).
Abortion involves the murder of innocent children.  Human life begins at conception.  At that moment, God gives each person a soul.  Consider the following Scriptures:  (1)  Ecclesiastes 12:7, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”  (2)  Hebrews 12:9, “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?”  The materialists of our day deny that man has a soul.  But, God says otherwise.  Abortion is a sin in God’s sight.  “These six things doeth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:16-19).  Those who reverence God, will restrain themselves from transgressing His holy Will.  Do you fear God?

   The Columbus Dispatch ran an article, Presidency Is Above Obama’s Pay Grade, on August 20, 2008 by Michael Graham. Graham gave an important quote by  Barack Obama concerning abortion.  The quotation occurred during the interview that Obama had with Rick Warren.  
   Obama said, “Well, uh, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or, uh, a scientific perspective, uh, answering that question with specificity, uh, you know, is, is, uh, above my pay grade.”  
   Warren asked an important question, “When does a baby get human rights?”  Obama skirted the question. Now, in the first few days of the Obama presidency, he reversed the Mexico City policy (Jan. 23, 2009) which will promote abortions in other countries.  He did this on Jan. 23, 2009, a day after the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.  It is not a secret that Obama is pro-abortion.  In order to be pro-abortion, the answer to the above question posed by Warren becomes obvious.  A child in the womb does not have human rights because it is not recognized as a human being.  Obama’s policy advances abortion.  The slaughter of innocent children will continue in order to appease the god of convenience. 
    The Scriptures recognize that a baby in the womb is a human being (Luke 1:41; Jeremiah 1:5; Psa. 139:14-15).  As a human being, the unborn should be protected by those who have the authority and responsiblity to do so.  God ordained government to be a supressor and avenger of the evil doer, not to become the evil doer! (Rom. 13:3-4). 
   Pilate attempted to clear himself of the guilt of putting an innocent man–Jesus Christ– to death by washing his hands.  He said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person…” (Matt. 27:24).  Was he? What is the verdict of good and just men?  What is the judgment of God?  Didn’t a breach of justice occur?
   That innocent man–Jesus Christ–will one day judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31).  When it is His turn to avenge the innocent, you can be sure the guilty will not escape.

     Kathleen Parker wrote an interesting article in the Columbus Dispatch September 2, 2008 entitled, “There should be no debate about when life begins.”  She was writing about recent comments made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who stated that “…I don’t think anybody can tell you when life begins…”  Pelosi was defending a woman’s right to choose and thus abort her unborn child. 
     Later, in the same article, Parker quotes from American medicine’s most prominent human embryology text, The Developing Human, concerning the beginning of human life.  I thought this quote was very informative and I am passing it along to you. Here it is, “Human development begins at fertilization when a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoon) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to produce a single cell–a zygote.  This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” (reference: www.dispatch.com).  “In other words, life begins at conception” (Parker).
     Biblical proof of this fact is recorded in Luke 1:41,44.  In Luke 1:36, Mary is told by Gabriel, an angel of the Lord, that Elisabeth had conceived a son in her old age.  Later, Mary visited with Elisabeth.  When Mary entered the house of Elisabeth, she greeted her.  Verse 41 states, “And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.”  Verse 44 contains part of the statement made by Elisabeth on that occasion.  She said, “For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.”  This “babe” was John the baptist.  The baby was already named (Luke 1:13), described (Luke 1:15) and commissioned (Luke 1:16-17).  Also, John was “filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15).  This is remarkable biblical testimony as to when life begins!  Surely, there is no question either theologically or scientifically about this most important event.  Human life begins at conception.  The ramifications of this fact are tremendous.  Are we willing to accept this truth and act in accordance with it? 

     In a recent issue of Life Times, a publication of the Ohio Right to Life organization, the new executive director, Mike Gonidakis, informed us that in 1998 the organization introduced a new strategy to reduce the number of abortions in Ohio.  Statistics show that the number of induced abortions have decreased in Ohio by 12.1 percent since that time.  The total number of abortions performed in Ohio in 2006 was 32,936– down 3.5% over the previous year.  To see the statistics for your state, check out the Ohio Right to Life web site at www.ohiolife.org. 
     Another bit of interesting information posted on this website is the Modern Day Hippocratic Oath.  In 1995, a prestigious group of thirty-five US physicians, the “Value of Life Committee”, issued this restatement of the Hippocratic Oath (originally attributed to a 5th century B.C. pagan physician (Hippocrates). 
     I swear in the presence of the Almighty and before my family, my teachers and my peers that according to my ability and judgment I will keep this Oath and Stipulation:
     To reckon all who have taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents and in the same spirit and dedication to impart a knowledge of the art of medicine to others.  I will continue with diligence to keep abreast of advances in medicine.  I will treat without exception any who seek my ministrations, so long as the treatment of others is not compromised thereby, and I will seek the counsel of particularly skilled physicians where indicated for the benefit of my patient.
     I will follow that method of treatment which according to my ability and judgment I consider for the benefit of my patient and abstain from whatever is harmful or mischievous.  I will neither prescribe nor administer a lethal dose of medicine to any patient even if asked nor counsel any such thing nor perform act or omission with direct intent deliberately to end a human life.  I will maintain the utmost respect for every human life from fertilization to natural death and reject abortion that deliberately takes a unique human life.
     With purity, holiness, and beneficence I will pass my life and practice my art.  Except for the prudent correction of an imminent danger, I will neither treat any patent nor carry out any research on any human being without the valid informed consent of the subject or the appropriate legal protector thereof, understanding that research must have as its purpose the furtherance of the health of that individual.  Into whatever patient setting I enter, I will go for the benefit of the sick and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief or curruption and further from the seduction of any patient.
     Whatever in connection with my professional practice or not in connection with it I may see or hear in the lives of my patients which ought not be spoken abroad I will not divulge, reckoning that all such should be kept secret.
     While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art and science of medicine with the blessing of the Almighty and respected by my peers and society, but should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot.
     David wrote, “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.  I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psa. 139:13-14).  The lives of the innocent, unborn, must be respected and protected.