the sanctity of human life

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in the sanctity of human life. Therefore, the Church opposes elective abortion for personal or social convenience, and counsels its members not to submit to, perform, encourage, pay for, or arrange for such abortions.

“The [Lord] allows for possible exceptions … when:

• Pregnancy results from rape or incest, or
• A competent physician determines that the life or health of the mother is in serious jeopardy, or
• A competent physician determines that the fetus has severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.”

The First Presidency continues: “Abortion is a most serious matter. [Even in these rare situations] it should be considered only after the persons responsible have received confirmation through prayer” and counseled with others.

Neil L. Andersen

"Cherishing Life", General Conference April 2025

leave it alone

My life was changed by a saintly patriarch. He married his sweetheart. They were deeply in love, and soon she was expecting their first child. 

The night the baby was born, there were complications. The only doctor was somewhere in the countryside tending to the sick. After many hours of labor, the condition of the mother-to-be became desperate. Finally, the doctor was located. In the emergency, he acted quickly and soon the baby was born, and the crisis, it appeared, was over. But some days later, the young mother died from the very infection that the doctor had been treating at another home that night.

The young man’s world was shattered. As the weeks wore on, his grief festered. He thought of little else, and in his bitterness he became threatening. Today, no doubt, he would have been pressed to file a malpractice suit, as though money would solve anything.

One night a knock came at his door. A little girl said simply, “Daddy wants you to come over. He wants to talk to you.”

“Daddy” was the stake president. The counsel from that wise leader was simply “John, leave it alone. Nothing you do about it will bring her back. Anything you do will make it worse. John, leave it alone.”

This had been my friend’s trial. How could he leave it alone? A terrible wrong had been committed. He struggled to get hold of himself and finally determined that he should be obedient and follow the counsel of that wise stake president. He would leave it alone.

He said, “I was an old man before I understood and could finally see a poor country doctor—overworked, underpaid, run ragged from patient to patient, with little medicine, no hospital, few instruments, struggling to save lives, and succeeding for the most part. He had come in a moment of crisis, when two lives hung in the balance, and had acted without delay. I finally understood!” He said, “I would have ruined my life and the lives of others.”

Many times he had thanked the Lord on his knees for a wise priesthood leader who counseled simply, “John, leave it alone.”

Boyd K. Packer, "Guided by the Holy Spirit." April 2011 General Conference

he died treated

“Sylvie, does the old lady have a chance of making it?”

“No, none at all. You know, there’s a cynical saying that surgeon’s patients die cured. Obviously, nobody’s interested in dying cured, but dying treated is something else. Sometimes people die in our hands, during the operation, and there’s nothing we can do. But the family still thanks us. They thank us by saying: “He was sick, or he was wounded, and you treated him, you prepared him to meet Allah. Thank you.” For us, who couldn’t save him, that’s hardly a consolation. But to them it’s very important that he died treated. And you know, when you give a dead child back to its mother – that’s happened to me – and, in return, she slips a handkerchief with a few walnuts into your hand... and she says, “Thank you, thanks to you he is ready to meet Allah”…”

“Must be heartbreaking.”

“Sure is.”



The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, Frédéric Lemercier, Médecins sans frontiers. Macmillan 2009.

A vigorous five mile walk will do more good for an unhappy, but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.

Paul Dudley White