When is a Baby Human?

When Is a Baby Human?

“Human life doesn’t really start at conception: How is a single cell a
person?”

Scientists determine that something is alive if it has the capacity to grow, metabolize, respond to stimuli, adapt, and reproduce of its own accord. So do philosophers. From zygote to blastocyst to embryo, there is not one point at which the unborn is inanimate. Actual being exists from the moment of conception, with heartbeats at day 24 and brain waves at day 43, both of which are well before the end of the first trimester. It is alive and it is human. It is not potential human life but actual life. When a woman is pregnant, it is illinformed to speak of a potential child. A sonogram would not depict an empty womb. The unborn child is conceived, it is an actual living being, an actual human child, a human life.

The language of abortion is thus intentionally misleading. The “choice” to have the child occurred
before pregnancy, and ended at the moment of conception. Many are misled into thinking the
termination amounts to not having the child. In fact, the child is already present, the child is “had” and the abortion is instead the killing of that life. One can only terminate a life because a life is already present. It is only before I am pregnant that I can choose to have a child, because there is as yet no child.

[Associate Professor Caitlin Smith Gilson,
The Language Game of Choice,
Human Life Review, Summer 2019.]

Did You Know...?

• At 5 weeks after conception, a baby has a heartbeat.

• At 6 weeks the baby’s nose, mouth and ears start to take shape and brain waves are detectable as their brain begins to develop.

• At 11 weeks the baby is almost fully formed; she’s stretching and kicking, although the mother can’t feel her yet.

• At 13 weeks her veins and organs are visible through her translucent skin.

• At 18 weeks she can swim, somersault, and suck her thumb.

• At 19 weeks the baby’s senses are developing, and she can hear your voice.

• At 20 weeks, although expert opinions differ, there are studies which conclude that she can feel pain.

• A baby born 23 weeks after conception has a 50 – 70% chance of survival.  At 26 weeks, it’s over 90%.

• In New Jersey, there is no restriction as to when an abortion can be performed.  In 2014, over 44,000 babies or 30% of all pregnancies were terminated by abortion in New Jersey.

Sources:  babycenter.com; March of Dimes, Guttmacher Institute and CDC

Please pray with us that we can help mothers, fathers and families understand there are other options to the destructive impact of an abortion on an innocent child, a mother, a father and their family.

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.