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When Does Life Begin?
When does human life begin? Many people say that this is a philosophical
or religious question. But the answer cannot be found in any one belief
system. Religious people throughout the ages have disagreed on when a
life begins. This was before the facts of genetics were known.
Now, we know. Science has answered the question when human life begins.
Let's look at some sources.
First, let's examine some medical textbooks. What do the scientists who
are most familiar with genetics and embryology say?
The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th ed.
Keith L. Moore, Ph.D. & T.V.N. Persaud, Md., (Philadelphia: W.B.
Saunders Company, 1998), 2-18:
"[The Zygote]
results from the union of an oocyte and a sperm. A zygote is the
beginning of a new human being. Human development begins at
fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm ...
unites with a female gamete or oocyte ... to form a single cell called a
zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks
the beginning of each of us as a unique
individual."
From Human Embryology & Teratology, Ronan R. O'Rahilly, Fabiola
Muller, (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996), 5-55.
"Fertilization is an important landmark because, under ordinary
circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is
thereby formed... Fertilization is the procession of events that begins
when a
spermatozoon makes contact with a secondary oocyte or its investments...
The zygote ... is a unicellular embryo.."
Essentials of Human Embryology, William J. Larsen, (New York:
Churchill Livingstone, 1998), 1-17.
"In this
text, we begin our description of the developing human with the
formation and differentiation of the male and female sex cells or
gametes, which will unite at fertilization to
initiate the embryonic development of a new individual. ...
Fertilization takes place in the oviduct ... resulting in the formation
of a zygote containing a single diploid nucleus. Embryonic
development is considered to begin at this point... This moment of
zygote formation may be taken as the beginning or zero time point of
embryonic development."
Human Embryology, 3rd ed. Bradley M. Patten, (New York: McGraw
Hill, 1968), 43.
"It is the
penetration of the ovum by a spermatozoan and resultant mingling of the
nuclear material each brings to the union that constitutes the
culmination of the process of fertilization and
marks the initiation of the life of a new
individual."
Keith L. Moore,
The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology,
7th edition.
Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003. pp. 16, 2.
"Human
begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm
(spermatozoo developmentn) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum)
to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized,
totipotent cell marked the beginning of each
of us as a unique individual."
"A zygote is
the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo)."
(updated, still the same)
T.W. Sadler,
Langman's Medical Embryology, 10th edition.
Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. p. 11.
"Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male
gamete, the sperm, and the femal gamete,
the oocyte, unite to give rise to a zygote."
Keith L. Moore,
Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology, 7th edition.
Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2008. p. 2.
"[The
zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and a sperm, is the beginning
of a new human being."
J.P. Greenhill and E.A. Friedman Biological Principles and Modern
Practice of Obstetrics (Philadelphia: W.B. Sanders, 1974), 17.
"The zygote
thus formed represents the beginning of a new life."
Ronan O'Rahilly and Fabiola Müller,
Human Embryology and Teratology, 3rd edition.
New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001. p. 8.
"Although
life is a continuous process, fertilization... is a critical landmark
because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human
organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei
blend in the oocyte."
William J. Larsen,
Essentials of Human Embryology.
New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1998. pp. 1, 14.
"Human embryos
begin development following the fusion of definitive male and female
gametes during fertilization... This moment of zygote formation may be
taken as the beginning or zero time point of embryonic development."
Langman, Jan. Medical Embryology. 3rd edition. Baltimore:
Williams and Wilkins, 1975, p. 3
"The
development of a human being begins with fertilization, a process by
which two highly specialized cells, the spermatozoon from the
male and the oocyte from the female, unite to give rise to a new
organism, the zygote."
E.L. Potter and J.M. Craig Pathology of the Fetus and the Infant, 3d
ed. (Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, 1975), vii.
"Every time
a sperm cell and ovum unite a new being is created which is alive and
will continue to live unless its death is brought about by some specific
condition."
Kaluger, G., and Kaluger, M., Human Development: The Span of Life,
page 28-29, The C.V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, 1974
"In that
fraction of a second when the chromosomes form pairs, the sex of the new
child will be determined, hereditary characteristics received from each
parent will be set, and a new life will have begun."
Lennart Nilsson
A
Child is Born: Completely Revised Edition
(Dell Publishing Co.: New York) 1986
“…but the
whole story does not begin with delivery. The baby has existed for
months before – at first signaling its presence only with small outer
signs, later on as a somewhat foreign little being which has been
growing and gradually affecting the lives of those close by….”
Considine, Douglas (ed.). Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia.
5th edition. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976, p. 943
"Embryo: The
developing individual between the union of the germ cells and the
completion of the organs which characterize its body when it becomes a
separate organism.... At the moment the sperm cell of the human male
meets the ovum of the female and the union results in a fertilized ovum
(zygote), a new life has begun.... The term embryo covers the several
stages of early development from conception to the ninth or tenth week
of life."
Carlson, Bruce M. Patten's Foundations of Embryology. 6th
edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, p. 3
"Almost all
higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum
(zygote)... The time of fertilization represents the starting point in
the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual."
Turner, J.S., and Helms, D.B., Lifespan Developmental, 2nd
ed., CBS College Publishing (Holt, Rhinehart, Winston), 1983, page
53
“A zygote (a
single fertilized egg cell) represents the onset of pregnancy and the
genesis of new life.”
Clark, J. ed., The Nervous System: Circuits of Communication in the
Human Body, Torstar Books Inc., Toronto, 1985, page 99
"Each human
begins life as a combination of two cells, a female ovum and a much
smaller male sperm. This tiny unit, no bigger than a period on this
page, contains all the information needed to enable it to grow into the
complex structure of the human body. The mother has only to provide
nutrition and protection."
Scarr, S., Weinberg, R.A., and Levine A., Understanding Development,
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1986. page 86
"The
development of a new human being begins when a male's sperm pierces the
cell membrane of a female's ovum, or egg…The villi become the placenta,
which will nourish the developing infant for the next eight and a half
months."
Thibodeau, G.A., and Anthony, C.P., Structure and Function of the
Body, 8th edition, St. Louis: Times Mirror/Mosby College
Publishers, St. Louis, 1988. pages 409-419
"The science
of the development of the individual before birth is called embryology.
It is the story of miracles, describing the means by which a single
microscopic cell is transformed into a complex human being. Genetically
the zygote is complete. It represents a new single celled individual."
DeCoursey, R.M., The Human Organism, 4th edition
McGraw Hill Inc., Toronto, 1974. page 584
“The zygote
therefore contains a new arrangement of genes on the chromosomes never
before duplicated in any other individual. The offspring destined to
develop from the fertilized ovum will have a genetic constitution
different from anyone else in the world.”
In the Womb,
National Geographic, 2005 (Prenatal Development Video)
"The two
cells gradually and gracefully become one. This is the moment of
conception, when an individual's unique set of DNA is created, a human
signature that never existed before and will never be repeated."
The Biology of Prenatal Develpment,
National Geographic, 2006. (Video)
"Biologically speaking, human development begins at fertilization."
Encyclopedia Britannica, "Pregnancy," page 968, 15th Edition.
Chicago 1974
“A new
individual is created when the elements of a potent sperm merge with
those of a fertile ovum, or egg.”
Scientists also weigh in on when life begins.
From California Medicine 113, no.3 (1970), reprinted in The Human
Life Review 1, no.1 (1975): 103-4.
". . . .
since the old ethic has not been fully displaced it has been necessary
to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing, which
continues to be socially abhorrent. The result has been a curious
avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that
human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra- or
extra-uterine until death. The very considerable semantic gymnastics
which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a
human life would be ludicrous if they were not often put forth under
socially impeccable auspices. It is suggested that this schizophrenic
sort of subterfuge is necessary because while a new ethic is being
accepted the old one has not yet been rejected."
"...each of
us has a unique beginning, the moment of conception...As soon as the
twenty-three chromosomes carried by the sperm encounter the twenty-three
chromosomes carried by the ovum, the whole information necessary and
sufficient to spell out all the characteristics of the new being is
gathered...(W)hen this information carried by the sperm and by the ovum
has encountered each other, then a new human being is defined which has
never occurred before and will never occur again...[the zygote, and the
cells produced in the succeeding divisions] is not just simply a
non-descript cell, or a "population" or loose "collection" of cells, but
a very specialized individual, i.e., someone who will build himself
according to his own rule." (As quoted in
Linacre Quarterly, February, 1993)
In
1981 (April 23-24) a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held hearings on the
very question before us here: When does human life begin? Appearing to
speak on behalf of the scientific community was a group of
internationally-known geneticists and biologists who had the same story
to tell, namely, that human life begins at conception - and they told
their story with a profound absence of opposing testimony. . In 1981, a
United States Senate judiciary subcommittee received the following
testimony from a collection of medical experts (Subcommittee on
Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, Report, 97th
Congress, 1st Session, 1981):
*
Dr. Micheline M. Mathews-Roth, Harvard medical
School, gave confirming testimony,
supported by references from over 20 embryology and other medical
textbooks that human life began at conception.
"It is
incorrect to say that biological data cannot be decisive...It is
scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at
conception."
*
"Father of Modern Genetics" Dr. Jerome Lejeune
told the lawmakers: "To accept the fact that after fertilization
has taken place a new human has come into being is no
longer a matter
of taste or opinion...it is plain experimental evidence. Each individual
has a very neat beginning, at conception."
*
Dr. McCarthy de Mere, medical doctor and law
professor, University of Tennessee, testified: "The exact moment
of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of
conception."
*
Dr. Alfred Bongiovanni,
Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics,
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
concluded, "I am no more prepared to say that these early stages
represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the
child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty ... is not a human
being....I have learned from my earliest medical
education that human life begins at the time of conception."
*
Dr. Richard V. Jaynes: "To say that the
beginning of human life cannot be determined scientifically is utterly
ridiculous."
*
Dr. Landrum Shettles, sometimes called the
"Father of In Vitro Fertilization" notes
"Conception confers life and makes that life one of a kind." And
on the Supreme Court ruling _Roe v. Wade_, "To deny a truth [about when
life begins] should not be made a basis for legalizing abortion."
*
Professor Eugene Diamond: "...either the justices were fed a
backwoods biology or they were pretending ignorance about a scientific
certainty."
*Gordon,
Hymie, M.D., F.R.C.P., Chairman of Medical Genetics, Mayo
Clinic, Rochester:
“Almost from
the moment of conception, great quantities of these biochemical
messengers appear in the cell, indicating that at the direction of the
DNA, the vital processes of the new organism have swung into
action…Even when the organism consists of only one cell, researchers
have been able to demonstrate the presence of two new proteins…complex
molecules which were not present in the unfertilized egg…By all criteria
of modern molecular biology,life is present from the moment of
conception...Science has a very simple conception of man; as soon as he
has been conceived, a man is a man.”
*
C. Christopher Hook, M.D. Oncologist, Mayo Clinic, Director of Ethics
Education, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine:
"When fertilization is complete, a unique genetic human entity exists."
The official Senate report reached this conclusion:
"Physicians,
biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the
beginning of the life of a human being - a being that is alive and is a
member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this
point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings."
D.J. Moran, M.D., J.D. Gorby, M.D., and T.W. Hilgers, M.E., "Abortion in
the Supreme Court: Death Becomes a Way of Life.", Sheed and Ward, 1974
"Individual
human life begins at conception and is a progressive, ongoing continuum
until natural death. This is a fact so well established that no
intellectually honest physician in full command of modern medical
knowledge would dare to deny it. There is no authority in medicine or
biology who can be cited to refute this concept. It is not a "theory,"
as Justice Blackmun wished to easily pass it off."
Shettles, Landrum, M.D., Rorvik, David, Rites of Life: The Scientific
Evidence for Life Before Birth, page 36, Zondervan Publishing House,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983
“…The merger
is complete within twelve hours, at which time the egg – which may have
"waited" as many as forty years for this moment – is fertilized and
becomes known technically as the "zygote," containing the full set of
forty-six chromosomes required to create human life. Conception has
occurred. The genotype – the inherited characteristics of a unique human
being – is established in the conception process and will remain in
force for the entire life of that individual. No other event in
biological life is so decisive as this one; no other set of
circumstances can even remotely rival genotype in "making you what you
are." Conception confers life and makes you one of a kind. Unless you
have an identical twin, there is virtually no chance, in the natural
course of things, that there will be "another you" – not even if mankind
were to persist for billions of years.”
From the pro-choice side: Acknowledgments of life before birth:
Faye Wattleton, the longest reigning president of the largest abortion
provider in the world - Planned Parenthood- argued as far back as 1997
that everyone already knows that abortion kills. She proclaims
the following in an interview with Ms. Magazine:
"I think we
have deluded ourselves into believing that people don't know that
abortion is killing. So any pretense that abortion is not killing is a
signal of our ambivalence, a signal that we cannot say yes, it kills a
fetus."
Naomi Wolf, a prominent feminist author and abortion supporter, makes a
similar concession when she writes:
"Clinging to a
rhetoric about abortion in which there is no life and no death, we
entangle our beliefs in a series of self-delusions, fibs and evasions.
And we risk becoming precisely what our critics charge us with being:
callous, selfish and casually destructive men and women who share a
cheapened view of human life...we need to contextualize the fight to
defend abortion rights within a moral framework that admits that the
death of a fetus is a real death."
David Noonin, in his book,
A Defense of Abortion,
makes this startling admission:
"In the top
drawer of my desk, I keep [a picture of my son]. This picture was taken
on September 7, 1993, 24 weeks before he was born. The sonogram image is
murky, but it reveals clear enough a small head tilted back slightly,
and an arm raised up and bent, with the hand pointing back toward the
face and the thumb extended out toward the mouth. There is no doubt in
my mind that this picture, too, shows [my son] at a very early stage in
his physical development. And there is no question that the position I
defend in this book entails that it would have been morally permissible
to end his life at this point." (p. xiv)
So
as we have seen, the question of when life begins has been answered by
science. The question is, will we grant this new life the right to live?
Source for some of these quotes:
www.Abort73.com |