Are Fertilized Eggs People?

On Wednesday, the North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill saying that fertilized eggs have all of the rights of a human being. The bill defines any organism containing a single human cell as a human being.

In other words, abortion could be charged as murder.

The bill passed 51-41, and now goes to the state Senate. The measure's sponsor, Rep. Dan Ruby, said, "This is very simply defining when life begins, and giving that life some protections under our Constitution--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

So if there's a fertilized egg that's been in a refrigerator for eighteen years and nine months, can it register to vote? When it turns 21, is it allowed to consume alcohol?

Roe v. Wade holds that a woman may abort her pregnancy up until the point at which the fetus is viable, viable being defined as the point at which the fetus is able to live outside the womb. Fertilized eggs can't breathe, eat, drink, or think. A fertilized egg is not a human being and should not be treated like one.

I am not pro-abortion; I am pro-choice. As Rep. Ruby correctly noted, human life is protected by the Constitution. Our law gives women to control over their bodies--the ability to choose when and whether they will have children, and to do so without worrying that, should they decide to terminate a pregnancy, they could be charged with murder.

What's next? A law re-defining contraception as attempted murder?