Dr. Albert W. Liley, a widely recognized authority in fetal medicine, explains why conception, not quickening, should be the deciding factor in when a preborn baby should be protected:
“Historically, “quickening” was supposed to delineate the time when the fetus became an independent human being possessed of a soul. Now, however, we know that while he may have been too small to make his motions felt, the unborn baby is active and independent long before his mother feels him. Quickening is a maternal sensitivity and depends on the mother’s own fat, the position of the placenta and the size and strength of the unborn child. Quickening is hardly an objective basis for making a decision about the existence or the value of the life of the unborn child.”
H.M. Liley, Modern Motherhood (1969), cited by Heffernan, “Early Biography of Everyman,” p.18
