“For Christ died for sins once and for all, a good man on behalf of sinners, in order to lead you to God. He was put to death physically, but made alive spiritually”
(1 Peter 3:18)
At week 13 touch receptors start to form in other places throughout baby’s body — his genitals, palms and the soles of his feet. Fingers and toes are well-defined. Skin layers are now close to adult quality. Vocal cords are forming. Female infants already have ovaries with hundreds of thousands of eggs. (The pregnant mother of a female child is carrying generations of human relatives!) Skin is our largest human organ and each square inch (6.5 cm²) of skin holds 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes, and more than 1,000 nerve endings.
Our ability to perceive touch sensations gives our brains information about the environment, such as temperature, pain, and pressure. If an infant doesn’t receive touch early in life, the immune system doesn’t develop properly and it can lead to digestive trouble. Touch has therapeutic benefits for a wide range of mental and physical ailments.
There is general medical consensus that a preborn child can feel pain after 20 weeks gestation. More recent studies, however, suggest that the preborn child is pain-sensitive at a much earlier point. Surgeon Robert P. N. Shearin states that: [1]
"As early as eight to ten weeks after conception, and definitely by thirteen-and-a-half weeks, the unborn experiences organic pain…. First, the unborn child’s mouth, at eight weeks, then her hands at ten weeks, then her face, arms, and legs at eleven weeks become sensitive to touch. By thirteen-and-a-half weeks, she responds to pain at all levels of her nervous system in an integrated response which cannot be termed a mere reflex. She can now experience pain."
Dramatic advances have been made in fetal surgery in recent years, with routine anesthesia for both mother and child. The glaring exception to this standard of medical care is abortion. The abortion procedures during any trimester involve tearing, crushing, dismembering or severing the tiny bodies, limbs and skulls of the preborn without any pain control.
This week the Latin church observes the Feast of Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ), commemorating the institution of the Holy Eucharist (Communion/the Lord’s Supper). Christians worldwide share this common meal of bread and wine, representing the Body of Christ “given for you,” and “the cup of the New Covenant in [Christ’s] blood, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” At week 13 of His incarnation, our Lord Jesus, sheltered in His mother’s womb, developed the skin that would be torn by the lash and pierced by a crown of thorns; and the nerves in his hands and feet that would shudder from the piercing of crucifixion. Jesus refused anesthesia when it was offered, (Matthew 27:33 – 34), experiencing the full spectrum of pain involved in His sacrifice so that we might live.
Abortion is a perverted sacrament of the cult of death - the torture and theft of innocent life to fulfill a selfish human will for destruction of human life. It is a cruel Devil’s parody of the torture and gift of our Savior’s innocent life to fulfill a sacrificial Divine will for the eternal restoration of human life.
“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’” Luke 22:19-20