Debates about abortion usually center around when life begins. Some would say life begins at conception, believing that a soul enters the body at that point. Some have claimed “quickening” or, the point when movement begins, is when a fetus should be legally deemed a “person.” Some Rabbinc traditions held that life befins at the first breath.
The theory that has made the most sense to me has been that, since the abscence of an EEG or organized brainwave is considered clinical death, that we might consider the inception of an organized brain activity as the point at which the fetus would be afforded the legal status of personhood.
The article below is written by a neuroscientist who struggles with the question of when human consciousness awakens.
I don’t know what to think about this, but I fear a slippery slope. Do we apply the same reasoning to those who have been born? I will have to think about this more. Is movement the criteria we use, either movement we can feel, as in the article, or movement we see on ultrasound? I don’t know of any method to determine if a fetus is “conscious.” Maybe one day we’ll have that option…
Mike, I wasn’t agreeing with the article, I just found it an interesting take on the topic. Unfortunately the “slippery slope” argument works both ways when it comes to the issue of the beginnings of consciousness. If one begins with the image of a child and moves backward in time, it seems ludicrous to say on one day it is human, but the day before that it isn’t. In the same way, if one begins with the fertilized egg and moves the other direction in time it seems equally ludicrous to say one day it suddenly becomes a human person. If you don’t care about the woman’s life the answer is easy. You just say life begins at conception. If you don’t care about the developing human being the answer is also easy, you say life begins at birth. My guess is that eventually we will settle on the EEG as the benchmark of when human life ends and begins.
Actually, that human life begins at conception is NOT a religious belief – it is plain experimental evidence. You should check your facts before you support homicide.
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“We talk of human development not because a jumble of cells, which is perhaps initially atypical, gradually turns more and more into a human, but rather because the human being develops from a uniquely human cell. There is no state in human development prior to which one could claim that a being exists with not-yet-human individuality. On the basis of anatomical studies, we know today that no developmental phase exists that constitutes a transition from the not-yet-human to the human.”
“In short, a fertilized egg (conceptus) is already a human being.”
Erich Blechschmidt, Brian Freeman, The Ontogenetic Basis of Human Anatomy: The Biodynamic Approach to Development from Conception to Adulthood, North Atlantic Books, June 2004. pp 7,8
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“Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm 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).”
Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 8th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2008. pp. 15, 2
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“Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a ‘moment’) 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.”
Ronan O’Rahilly and Fabiola Müller, Human Embryology and Teratology, 3rd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001. p. 8
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“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.”
Carlson, Bruce M. Patten’s Foundations of Embryology. 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, p. 3
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“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.”
Langman, Jan. Medical Embryology. 3rd edition. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1975, p. 3
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“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.”
Human Embryology, 3rd ed. Bradley M. Patten, (New York: McGraw Hill, 1968), 43
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Dr. Jerome Lejeune of Paris, France was a medical doctor, a Doctor of Science and a professor of Fundamental Genetics for over twenty years. Dr. Lejeune discovered the genetic cause of Down Syndrome, receiving the Kennedy Prize for the discovery and, in addition, received the Memorial Allen Award Medal, the world’s highest award for work in the field of Genetics. He is often called the “Father of Modern Genetics”. The following are some notable statements by him:
“After fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into existence. This is no longer a matter of taste or opinion. Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception.”
– 1989 court testimony in Tennessee, cf. also Louisiana Legislature’s House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice on June 7, 1990
“The human nature of the human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence.”
– The Subcommittee on Separation of Powers, Report to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th
Congress, First Session, 1981
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“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.”
– The official Senate report from Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, Report, 97th Congress, 1st Session, 1981
Background on the Committee testifiers:
A group of internationally-known biologists and geneticists appeared to speak on behalf of the scientific community on the subject of when a human being begins. They all presented the same view and there was no opposing testimony. Among those testifying:
Dr. Micheline M. Mathews-Roth, Harvard medical School
Dr. Jerome Lejeune (“Father of Modern Genetics”)
Dr. McCarthy de Mere, medical doctor and law professor, University of Tennessee
Dr. Alfred Bongiovanni, Professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Dr. Richard V. Jaynes
Dr. Landrum Shettles, sometimes called the “Father of In Vitro Fertilization”
Professor Eugene Diamond
Gordon, Hymie, M.D., F.R.C.P., Chairman of Medical Genetics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester
C. Christopher Hook, M.D. Oncologist, Mayo Clinic, Director of Ethics Education, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine
Chris, The article wasn’t about when life begins, it was about when consciousness begins. Sorry you wasted all that time of a different topic.