Sacrifice

I wrote this essay likening abortion to human sacrifice when I was doing my undergrad degree at Northern Michigan University - I think it was probably 2002 or 2003.


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I’m taking a class about the history of Mexico and every time I turn around, I think of our neighbors to the south. Of course, being the college-age male that I am, there are certain parts of Mexican history that I’m probably going to remember better than others. Take, oh, human sacrifice for example. I guess it’s hard to forget that kind of thing once you manage to wrap your mind around the fact that real people were getting really killed in really gruesome ways. In central Mexico, human sacrifice was carried out to such an extent that it even managed to make a not-so-nice band of Spanish mercenaries sick to their stomachs when they saw it.

The Aztecs literally considered human sacrifice to be a part of their mission as a messianic people. Although the majority of those murdered were prisoners of war, many Aztecs considered it to be an honor to have their blood shed on the temple steps. Why, you ask? Why would any mother give up her son to have his heart taken out or his head taken off or to be buried alive? Because she was told that it was for the good of society. And since it was for the good of society, it was also good for her and every other family member that was left behind.

Please understand; I’m not trying to pick on any one nation or culture. Practically every society on earth has practiced human sacrifice at one time or another. It’s embarrassing, but at least it’s ancient history… right? Think again. It turns out that even in our country of supposedly endless freedom human sacrifice is practiced on a level that makes the Aztecs look like innocent children.

Worse yet, we kill babies. We starve them and we dismember them and other things too horrible to mention. But hey, it’s for the betterment of society right? At least, that’s what the scientific and medical professions tell us - it's about health and a better, freer society. Isn’t that ironic? As if the parallel was't frightening enough, members of those professions often enjoy a status in our society that’s comparable with the priests of the ancient world, and they certainly have the attentive ear of the government. What’s the difference between the slaughter in our time and that perpetrated by our ancestors? It's hard to see.