Fetal Development
Science proves that human life begins at conception (fertilization) when a genetically unique human being comes into existence, with his own genetic code.
Visit the Endowment for Human Development (EHD) to see the biology of development in the womb.
Documents on Fetal Pain
What Does the Scientific Community Say About When Life Begins?
Dr. Jerome Lejeune, “Father of Modern Genetics” and discoverer of the cause of Down’s Syndrome, stated, “To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place, a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion . . . it is plain experimental evidence.”
In the widely used medical textbook, The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th Edition, Moore, Persaud, Saunders, 1998, states on page 2 that “The intricate processes by which a baby develops from a single cell are miraculous …. This cell [the zygote] results from the union of an oocyte [egg] and sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being ….” On page 18 this theme is repeated: “Human development begins at fertilization ….”
“The unborn baby is alive from the first moment of conception of a single egg and a single sperm.” N.Z. Health Department: Pamphlet No 83 Your New Baby (Government Printer) 1969.
Dr. McCarthy de Mere, medical doctor and law professor of the University of Tennessee, testified: “The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception.”
Abortion Rights Action League, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, said “It is atrocious for anyone now to maintain that a fetus [unborn child] is simply a lump of meat, or something insignificant or an unprotectable life.”
In 1933, abortion advocate and former medical director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Dr. Alan Guttmacher, wrote, “We of today know that man is born of sexual union… and that the embryo is formed from the fusion of two single cells, the ovum and the sperm. This all seems so simple and evident to us that it is difficult to picture a time when it was not part of the common knowledge.” And in 1961 Dr. Guttmacher wrote, “Fertilization, then has taken place; a baby has been conceived.” If a man who has dedicated his life to promotiong contraception and abortion can acknowledge the scientific facts of when life begins, why can’t we?