When does life begin?

An honest question, the answer to which many Americans give a variety of answers. Of course, most Christians like myself will say life begins at conception. Others will say it begins at birth. And still, some will argue that it begins sometime between the two. Various responses have been given throughout history. We often lacked scientific knowledge about what occurs during conception and gestation. Even the Church's understanding has deepend on the subject, often benefitting from the findings of the scientific community with regard to biology and human development at the embryonic and fetal levels.

Several years ago, I attended a pretty good lecture that attempted to show evidence for the contention that life begins at conception by tracing backward some of the common arguments given for when life began, beginning with birth. I found the same discussion outlined by Dr. Thomas Miller at this website, which I will quote below:

1.) Life Begins at Birth

To equate birth with the commencement of human life is to ignore totally a huge body of medical information that has been available for most of this century that concerns itself with what is happening to the child in the womb prior to birth. If labor is chemically induced a week before the mother would have gone into labor naturally, does the child become human a week sooner than it would have otherwise? ... Common scientific technology now records that activity and growth in detail. It is ludicrous to imply, as this definition does, that the activity in the womb is irrelevant and that there is no life until birth.

Further, if birth defines life, then the whole field of fetal surgery makes no sense. For over a decade fetal surgery has been used to treat various problems of unborn children. The child is taken out of the mother's womb, the defect is repaired, and the child is then returned to the womb to complete his or her development in preparation for birth. Operations on unborn children have been performed as early as twelve weeks. Inherent in these surgical procedures is the understanding that the unborn child is a full fledged human being. Birth has nothing to do with humanness or when a human life begins.

2.) Life Begins at Viability

[Viability is] the term used to indicate when the unborn child potentially is capable of living outside the mother's womb, with or without life support technology. The time during a pregnancy at which a child reaches viability has changed dramatically over the past twenty years. The increasing sophistication of technology has been a significant factor in the change. But our enhanced understanding of fetal development and what is required to promote that development coupled with the capability of medical personnel to provide the necessary support services are also important factors which enable premature babies to develop to a point where they have a reasonable chance of living without support at earlier and earlier ages.

Twenty years ago babies had a reasonable chance of survival by 30 weeks. Today, babies born at 20 weeks have survived. Thus viability is greatly influenced by the sophistication of medical support services available as well as by the ability to implement them. It has nothing to do with humanness or when a human life begins. [AP- in 20 years could a testtube child be able to develop ex-utero in a lab with everything it needs to develop? Would this then not be a human being?]

3.) Life Begins at Quickening

[Quickening is] a term which describes a woman's first sense of movement in her womb during her pregnancy. Some women have been known to sense such movement as early as three months into the pregnancy. Most women perceive movement sometime between four and four and one half months. But the perception of such movement by some women has been delayed as long as six to seven months. It is influenced by such factors as the sensitivity of the mother to her pregnant state, the activity of the unborn child (which can vary greatly from one child to another), the relative body weight of the pregnant mother and her own level of activity.

With the assistance of ultrasound a woman can observe the active child she may not yet be able to feel. Quickening is a matter of sensation and has nothing to do with defining humanness or when a human life begins.

4.) Life begins when the criteria of the Harvard Medical School are met

The most important thing to be said about this definition is that the criteria have been taken out of the context in which they were originally intended. They were developed in an effort to define brain death in order to provide guidance in determining when a human being may be declared dead. They were not intended to define humanness.

In the 1960s a committee at Harvard Medical School developed the four criteria to define when the brain was truly alive. The criteria consisted of:

1. response to external stimuli, such as pinching to elicit pain;
2. the presence of deep reflex action, such as what happens when a doctor takes a reflex hammer and taps the knee;
3. the ability to breathe and move spontaneously, and
4. the presence of brain wave activity as demonstrated on an electroencephalogram (EEG).

The presence of even one of the four criteria is sufficient to establish brain life. Reflex and response to external stimuli have been shown just a few weeks after conception. But the criteria assume the presence of a human being to whom they are being applied. The Harvard Criteria simply provide a gauge to ascertain the functioning of the brain. They do not determine humanness or when a life begins.

5.) Life begins at Conception

Conception is that moment when a woman's egg is fertilized by a man's sperm. The result of this union of two cells is one unique cell known as the zygote. This single cell contains all the ingredients necessary for growth, development, and differentiation into the organ systems of a human adult. The zygote of each human being is distinctly different from every other human being. ... The zygote... is totally self sufficient and independent in terms of its ability to develop into an adult human being. It needs no more than a proper environment of oxygen and nutrients to develop its recognizable human parts: head, arms, legs, and the various organs. The zygote is not potential human life, but actual human life. It will never develop into a dog, cat, or any other creature. Its destiny is to become an adult human being for human life is what it is.