An embryology textbook describes how birth is just an event in the development of a baby, not the beginning of his/her life.
“It should always be remembered that many organs are still not completely developed by full-term and birth should be regarded only as an incident in the whole developmental process.”
F Beck Human Embryology, Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1985 page vi
“It is the penetration of the ovum by a sperm and the resulting mingling of nuclear material each brings to the union that constitutes the initiation of the life of a new individual.”
Clark Edward and Corliss Patten’s Human Embryology, McGraw – Hill Inc., 30
“Although it is customary to divide human development into prenatal and postnatal periods, it is important to realize that birth is merely a dramatic event during development resulting in a change in environment.”
The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology fifth edition, Moore and Persaud, 1993, Saunders Company, page 1
“Thus a new cell is formed from the union of a male and a female gamete. [sperm and egg cells] The cell, referred to as the zygote, contains a new combination of genetic material, resulting in an individual different from either parent and from anyone else in the world.”
Sally B Olds, et al., Obstetric Nursing (Menlo Park, California: Addison – Wesley publishing, 1980) P 136
Quoted in Eric Pastuszek. Is the Fetus Human? (Rockford, Illinois: Tan books And Publishers Inc., 1991)
“The zygote is the starting cell of the new individual.”
Salvadore E. Luria, M.D. 36 Lectures in Biology. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Press, 1975, page 146
A zygote is a newly conceived life, created when a sperm and an egg cell unite at conception. The term applies to the new human being before cell division begins.This doctor is explaining that life begins at conception, when the zygote is formed.
“The term conception refers to the union of the male and female pronuclear elements of procreation from which a new living being develops. It is synonymous with the terms fecundation, impregnation, and fertilization … The zygote thus formed represents the beginning of a new life.”
J.P. Greenhill and E.A. Freidman. Biological Principles and Modern Practice of Obstetrics. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Publishers. 1974 Pages 17 and 23.
This is an old reference, but scientists have known that life begins at conception for a very long time. See newer references here.
“When does the life of a human being begin? To answer this question is to decide whether or not human embryos are, in fact, human beings and, as such, possessors of inherent human dignity. Where do we go to find the answer? Not to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.… Not to the Bible, which says nothing about human embryos. Not to the Talmud, which (like the Bible) was composed centuries before the discovery of the ovum – a time when almost nothing was known about embryogenesis. Not to the Koran. Not to our “moral intuitions.”
Rather, we go to the standard texts of modern human embryology and developmental biology – for example, the texts by Keith Moore and TVN Persaud; Bruce M Carlson; Ronan O’Rahilly and Fabiola Mueller; and William J Larsen. When we consult these works, we find little or nothing in the way of scientific mystery or dispute. The texts tell the same story and answer the key question in the same way. Anyone who wishes to know when he or she as a distinct living member of the species Homo sapiens came into existence need only open any of these books and look up the answer.
So I have a proposal for people of good will who wish to affirm the inherent and equal dignity of all human beings but disagree with those of us who are opposed on moral grounds to embryo destructive research. Let’s leave religion out of this. Let’s agree to resolve our differences of opinion strictly on the basis of the best available scientific evidence as to when the life of a new human being begins. Any takers?”
Robert P George is an advisor on the President’s Council on Bioethics, a professor at Princeton University posted this on the National Review Website
Scott Klusendorf. The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture. (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2009) 108 to 109
