When Does Human Life Begin

Careful and reproducible observations and measurements in the bbiosciences have similarly forced us to repeatedly refine our traditional ideas about what life itself is and when it begins. Is a human being first a life when it emerges from the birth canal? Does it have any legal rights is as a person before then? Or is it a life at the stage of development where > it is able to survive independently outside of the womb even if it is removed from there early, as can happen naturally with premature birth or with a Caesarean section? But wait! Perhaps it is really a life when a fertilized egg first implants in the uterine lining, which, based on careful observations, is the medical definition of when a pregnancy begins. A woman cannot be said to be medically pregnant until her body begins the chem ical and biological changes that accompany a symbiotic hosting of the embryo, can she? If it does not, the egg, even if fertilized, is simply flushed. Now here we are getting into a tricky area, because many religious conservatives say, "No, it is a life when egg and sperm meet," whether or not the fertilized egg ever implants. But then, a scientist would ask, is it still a life at that moment, even if you know from careful observation that one-third to one-half of all fertilized eggs never implant?^ And of course that brings up a secondary point: What are fertilized eggs that never implant? How do we define them? As miscarriages? Abortions? Nonpregnancies? Something else? What implications might that definition have for the use of birth control pills that inhibit implantation? Is that abortion, murder, or pregnancy prevention?

Is it at fertilization, implantation, or after birth?