LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is the education director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation and a former LifeNews.com staff writer.

7th and 8th graders say the most remarkable things. That truth is being borne out through some of the entries to the 2008 Pennsylvania Pro-Life Essay contest.

Students at St. Francis Xavier school in Gettysburg recently submitted their essays for the contest, which ends March 1st. Some of their insights are truly amazing.

Consider this analogy from a young man named Anthony:

"Just picture someone in your life that you could not love any more than you do now. Picture that person leaving their house or somewhere they were...just for a few minutes, possibly to go get something. You wait for them to get back, and after ten or so minutes of waiting for them you get worried. You go out to try and find that person but you cannot find them. You go back in and call the police and sooner or later there is a search party out looking for them.

"You are worried for them so much that you get no sleep that night, and early that morning you get news from the police that the one person you loved the most had been murdered by a man for no reason at all.

"I do not know how you would feel but I know I would be torn apart. It would feel so unfair to just about anyone, especially since the person who had murdered your loved one had no motive to kill them at all.

"This situation is no different than abortion..."

Or consider this insight about the Terri Schiavo case from a boy named Michael:

"(Terri) Schiavo as you may know was euthanized because she no longer had any worth to her husband."

And here's the reaction of a young man named Lance when he found out what abortion was all about:

"When you hear the word abortion you probably don't know what it is or means--well, at least I didn't. When I think of abortion, what comes to mind is...aborting a plan, or a mission. I had no idea it was what they were about to tell me, but then they told me. It was pretty upsetting when they told me abortion was giving up on a child and not letting a child be born and be like one of us on this earth. Letting one more kid on this earth is awesome because they could be a pro skateboarder, or find the cure for cancer..."

I'll end with this observation from a student named Shenandoah:

"There are several different ways to have an abortion. Let's get that several down to zero."