“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

I have never read Sir Walter Scott’s epic poem Marmion, but everyone instantly recognizes the truth in this famous phrase.

If you have not yet heard of Baby Gabriel – or Baby Rumi, as his biological parents have re-named him – you will.

Here it is, in a nutshell:

McKenna West, an attractive 28-year-old nurse from Alaska, answered an ad from Californians Nausheen Gilkar and Omar Ahmed, who were looking for a surrogate mother for their pre-conceived IVF human being. We don’t know their marital status, religion, politics, or what conception difficulties might have led them to run the ad. Neither do we know when and where implantation occurred. Likely we will all have this revealed as the courts make it public.

Notice I did not say “conception,” which is entirely a different thing from implantation. To assuage the consciences of anti-abortion Christians who use IUDs or low-estrogen pills, decades ago some medical scientists wanted to change the definitions. Now, some call “implantation” what it is not: “conception.” If you do not think this will somehow be wielded by the various attorneys, on both sides of the controversy, think again.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1965 attempted to redefine “conception” to mean implantation rather than fertilization. Both the AMA and the British equivalent have accepted this in the 21^st century. Recognizing this attempted deception, the American College of Pediatricians certified this statement in 2017: “The predominance of human biological research confirms that human life begins at conception – fertilization. At fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment to grow and develop. The difference between the individual in its adult stage and in its zygotic stage is one of form, not nature.”

Liberals always hack away at Southern slavery to demonstrate their imagined enlightenment and self-righteousness – while they themselves partake of a thoughtless selfishness in their newly minted version of slavery.

West wanted the $60,000 to function as – call it what it is – a “human incubator.” Then she quite naturally resisted aborting the baby when it was found, through a prenatal diagnosis at 20 weeks gestation, to have serious cardiac troubles, and would need surgery. A woman who sustains life and feels the baby move will naturally experience “bonding.” West ought to have known this from her reported previous two pregnancies. But her contract required her to abort.

Looking desperately for a way to save the baby’s life, she contacted help from the prolife firm LiveAction, who suggested that she head for Texas. There, the laws are more favorable than Alaska’s regarding the value of unborn human life.

Now, the biological parents want custody and $100,000 in damages from West. The sappy press releases from Gilkar and Ahmed’s attorney demonstrate the yin-yang madness of the abortion culture: “Rumi [or Gabriel] is now recuperating under the loving care of his parents and his heroic team of doctors, nurses, and medical staff.”

Let’s rewrite this as if West had the abortion: “The deformed fetus has been effectively crushed and dismembered under the heroic team of doctors, nurses and medical staff. The parents are grateful that the surrogate mother obeyed the terms of contract law. Happily, costly cardiac medical surgery, a lifetime of pharmaceutical costs, rehab and incapacity, will not be required. As Margaret Sanger said, sometimes the most merciful thing you can do for a child is to kill it.”

We can only hope that West, who is a woman of color, noticed the obvious: that surrogate motherhood is a new form of human slavery. It treats a human being as a commodity or a toy, to be used or disposed of at the whim of legal ownership, but never as a human being with human rights, made in the image and likeness of God.

We can go to Goethe’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice story to fully analyze the implications of this situation, and the resulting “case law,” which now could go in ANY direction. Here’s a sample of what justice and law will make a futile attempt to untangle:

— Contract law v. human rights

— Forced abortion v. “Choice”

— Surrogate motherhood v. Donating parentage

— IVF v. natural conception

— Conception v. implantation

— Natural Law v. Positive Law

— Traditional Catholic teachings v. contemporary Synodal Way

— Liberal v. Conservative

Any attempt to legislate or “magistrate” our way out of this will not untangle things, only make them worse. Solomon wouldn’t be able to do it. It would be a replay of Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer’s inept apprentice, chopping up the brooms, in the Disney cartoon version of Goethe’s poem, seen in the iconic Fantasia.

This is what happens when man decides he knows better than God, and to not “stay in his lane.” Our tangled web of deception began ages ago. The fall of man was more than an act of disobedience. It was an attempt to unhinge ourselves from the loving Creator, view him as a peer and ultimately to surpass him in wisdom and power. That is exactly what is happening now in Western culture.

Liberals always hack away at Southern slavery to demonstrate their imagined enlightenment and self-righteousness – while they themselves partake of a thoughtless selfishness in their newly minted version of slavery.

We are entangled in our own hubris. Our nation’s motto, “In God We Trust” has been lost, yet it is easily rediscovered. The antidote begins with the prayer, penance and humility which Our Savior taught us.

If this Cross seems too heavy, He will help us carry it.

The views expressed here are those of the author.

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