Father, when your glasses fogged
with the weight of history surging
through tiny eggs in your petry dish,
were they living breathing mice
or just masses of tissue without an
iPhone and an email address?
When did human borders shrink
inside our very own uterine walls?*
* Before he retired, my father was a cancer researcher who took the lives of countless living creatures and used embryonic research, all in the name of saving lives. What is the definition of life? When does an individual life separate from the writhing cellular mass and become unique. Why are human zygotes more precious than adult pigs or cows? If we ever have an easy answer to these questions, I’ll know we have failed as a species. This is not an endorsement of life from conception, nor is it a pro-abortion rant, merely a query as to when the human body, our primary vestige of free will, became an issue for regulation.
: andy l. kubai : writer : 