That reminds me of how for centuries the church taught that "spilling seed," the awful "sin of Onan," was murder since all of life (they thought) was contained within the precious sperm, hence Monty Python's hysterically funny song "Every sperm is sacred" from "The Meaning of Life." Of course the church didn't realize that every time a man ejaculates into a woman millions of individual sperm cells die and only one may or may not fertilize and egg cell. Nonetheless, Holy Mother Church confidently held her line for centuries, right up to the present day, since masturbation is still considered a sin.