When is a Baby Human?

When Is a Baby Human?

Science Speaks for the Baby

Science, through the study of embryology, has provided clarity in determining the onset of human life. Embryology is the branch of biology and medicine that examines embryos and their development. An embryo is a distinct and independent being, created from the union of the female egg and male sperm. This moment in which 23 male chromosomes joins 23 female chromosomes is known as fertilization and defines the start of human life.

Unchallenged, the embryo experiences a continuous series of developmental stages during which the baby needs only nourishment to live and develop physically. The evidence is indisputable: human life begins at fertilization. The insistence that this new life is merely a “clump of tissue” or a collection of the “mother’s cells” is inaccurate as pointed out above. The mingling of 23 chromosomes from each parent ensures that a unique human life is present. This dismisses many of the myths put forward by pro-choice rebuttals.

The immediate reaction to fertilization (contraception) is a thickening in the lining of the newly created human life to prevent additional sperm penetration. Only one sperm can fertilize one egg. The developing embryo (zygote stage), orchestrated by genes, the unit of heredity transferred equally from both the mother and father, will direct the new child’s development.

The next series of events further define the independent nature of the newly formed person. The embryo, uninterrupted, will achieve a completed human body. This is in contrast to the principles of regenerative medicine that allow physicians to remove skin cells from a healthy person and grow them in a laboratory for re-implantation such as with skin grafts. According to Maureen L. Condic, Ph.D., in her article When Does Human Life Begin?  skin cells “will divide many times [over] to produce a large mass of [skin] cells, but it will not reestablish the whole organism from which it was removed; it will not regenerate an entire human body.” The genetically programmed embryo, at its earliest stage, unlike skin, can organize itself independently and create a full human body. This development continues from the embryo and fetus, through birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age until natural death.

Another common misrepresentation is that the fertilized egg is not human unless implantation occurs. Implantation is the process whereby the embryo embeds itself into the fertile landscape of its mother’s womb nearly one week after fertilization. This region provides the vital nourishment required to sustain life. Implantation, however, is merely a permanent repositioning of the already-living and already-existing child to maintain his or her well-being through delivery.

Pro-life arguments continue to gain significant support through a scientific community committed to seeking the truth and establishing clarity for all people. Through science may we continue to receive and provide understanding that opens the hearts and minds of those people misled by “pro-choice” arguments.