Haeckel’s Embryos asks an important question,
“To what extremes will we go to show that human life is not any different from any other life?”
Haeckel’s Embryos is a known lie. Eugenie Scott, one of the most outspoken advocates for evolution in the United States says this,
“It’s clear that Haeckel may have fudged his drawings somewhat to look more like his ideal than they actually are. Now, does that actually take away from what we know about the relationship of embryology to evolution? Not a bit. The whole Haeckel’s embryos story has been greatly blown out of significance. It is a minor footnote in the history of science. And actually it’s been known for ten or fifteen years that Haeckel’s embryos are not to be relied upon. The reason why the diagrams are reproduced is because they’re easily available–there’s no copyright on them–it’s an easy way to illustrate a point. And I would argue that the basic point that’s being illustrated by those drawings is still accurate.” [1]
What if the tables were turned?
What if someone drew a highly exaggerated and inaccurate picture of the differences between the skeletal structures of apes and humans? Would that make it year after year into biology textbooks taught in high schools and colleges around the United States?
Eugenie Scott says that “the whole Haeckel’s embryos story has been greatly blown out of significance. But every year, hundreds of thousands of women in the United States choose to have abortions. In 2008, the last year data is available, the number was 1.2 million. The truth about embryonic development can’t be “greatly blown out of significance” when we are looking at whether 1.2 million abortions simply terminated a pregnancy and got rid of a blob of tissue . . . or whether they destroyed a human life.
Haeckel’s embryos matter. My belief in whether a developing human child looks the same as a developing cat does matter. It is one factor in the most critical decision a mother can make in the life of her child: whether to give life, or take it away. If we are all put here in a mess of cosmic soup, and it’s all about populating species and survival of the fittest, if there’s no difference between me and the rabbit in my backyard . . . there isn’t any real moral reason I should care whether a baby winds up on the delivery table or in a trash can.
But if this Haeckel’s drawings have been known to be a lie for many years . . why have they continued to be copied and recopied in textbooks? Surely it is not just because they are free images. There are many free images science textbooks wouldn’t touch.
But how can we ever know the truth about human development, if there is so much controversy over it?
We could try the new 4d ultrasounds, for starters.
I found a photographer’s studio that is a bit different than usual. Rather than line families up to take photos against backdrops, the studio takes 4D photos of developing babies inside mamas’ bellies. They use sound waves. Women can go to their studio to get a photograph of the fetus from 8 weeks up. The studio has example photos for women to see of what a fetus looks like from 8 weeks on up to 37 weeks. Check them out here and compare them to Haeckel’s concept of life, if you’re willing.
The truth always speaks loudest. The truth that we matter, that we are created in the image of God. I believe everyone knows this in their hearts.
Our inner thoughts are a lamp
from the Lord,
and they search our hearts. (Proverbs 20:27, CEV)
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[1] Eugenie Scott’s statement, recorded on Icons of Evolution, Randolph Productions Inc, 2002.
[2] Statistic from Jones, Rachel K. and Kathryn Kooistra. “Abortion Incidence and Access to Services in the United States, 2008.” Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 43, no. 1 (2011, March): 41-50
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