It's exactly the same public safety interest that causes the state to license doctors and nurses. The profession is such that a single mistake can be fatal for the patient. I can speak from experience on that; one time our daughter was prescribed a medication by our family doctor and then an ER doc prescribed another med for a different ailment, and our pharmacist caught a potentially lethal drug interaction.
To be fair, though, I am still struggling with the idea of life beginning at conception...I've offered thousands of prayers in hopes of an answer as to why God would find it in His will to create and discard so many babies. So many miscarriages occur without the mother even realizing she's pregnant...for what purpose?
You ask a tough question. I hope I can be an answer to your prayer. First, consider that when we talk about life beginning at conception, it's mainly in a scientific context. Granted, I'm sure most pro-lifers are thinking about a child with a soul when they use the term, the bottom line is that we don't know whether the zygote possesses a soul, we do know beyond doubt that it's the beginning of human life. Certainly, we shouldn't place ourselves in a position where science is pointing to something and saying "Human, without doubt" and our laws are saying "Kill it!"
That "they might not even have souls" may seem like a cop-out, but I wante to cover that before I get to the question of why miscarriages and such happen in the first place. That's not about God sitting in Heaven planning millions of unnecessary deaths, that's about original sin. The Universe is broken because of it. Nothing quite works, and that includes reproduction. As I understand it, most miscarriages occur because there is something grievously wrong with the child, and this is especially true with the early miscarriages we're discussing. It's just another sign that things are broken.
So we come to the bigger question, why does God let things go on like this? Why should there ever be suffering? Why doesn't He just use His power to fix it?
I addressed this when I gave a eulogy at my grandmother's funeral. Her name was Ginny Brown, and she had suffered dementia for some time before she died from complications of esophageal cancer. She was easily the sweetiest person I've ever known, and no one seemed to deserve a death like that less than she did. In one part of the eulogy, after reading most of 2 Corinthians 4 I said this:
Ginny Brown was a treasure, a treasure in a jar of clay. We watched that jar wear out over the course of her life as all of ours do. But the unseen was different. The unseen was being constantly renewed, being prepared for glory. Ginny passed away at 6:02 on Monday morning. It's not an exaggeration to say that she was a billions times better off at 6:03 than she was at 6:01. In fact, it's an understatement. On the surface it seems callous to refer to her period of suffering as "light and momentary," but it only seems that way because we can't see what was waiting for her. I've got a little glimpse for you, though, from Chapter 21 of Revelation:And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"
The troubles are troubles, sometimes quite horrible troubles. But Paul called them "light and temporary" and said they "are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
It may seem harsh, or flip, but this is the truth: All these pains, deaths, tragedies and injustices are like paying a one time $1 fee to access a bank account that has 100 quadrillion dollars in it. The problem is, we have to take that bank statement by faith. That's the problem for some folks, and I think the issue of suffering here on Earth is a source of thorns for a lot of people who would embrace the Gospel otherwise.
I hope I haven't wandered too far afield, and most of all, I hope I've helped. God bless you.
The thorns probably do keep many away. An omnipotent father who said to his drowning children, "Just swim for the life saver I've tossed out of your reach," would be considered cruel and not admired. Yet that's the analogy I've heard used for the God the Father. Are we truly to emulate such a model?
I am glad that hopes of a better afterlife comfort those who can believe. I envy that comfort, but, to be honest, I now find comfort in the idea that it will all be null.
I still must disagree with the licensing issue, as a single mistake in any number of other fields can be fatal for the customer. Do we have the government license ammo dealers to be sure the customer doesn't have a firearm that won't handle the chamber pressures?
And even if we had the government-licensed pharmacists that some people preferred, why can't we also have privately certified pharmacists for others to go to? And why is the pharmacist gatekeeper required when there is no fatal interaction?