Simple Science (Not Religion) Says When "Life" Begins

LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION

Dr. Jerome Lejeune of Paris, France, was a physician and Doctor of Science and Professor of Genetics for 25 years. Dr. Lejeune discovered the genetic cause for Down’s Syndrome. He received awards such as the Kennedy Prize and the Memorial Allen Award Medal; he was a member of The American Academy of Arts and Science, the Royal Society of Medicine of London, and the Royal Society of Science in Stockholm. Dr. Lejeune died April 3, 1994.

Dr. Lejeune noted that the very first cell, the fertilized egg cell or zygote, is "the most specialized cell under the sun".

In the words of Dr. Lejeune:

"Each of us has a very precise starting moment which is the time at which the whole necessary and sufficient genetic information is gathered inside one cell, the fertilized egg, and this is the moment of fertilization. There is not the slightest doubt about that and we know that this information is written on a kind of ribbon which we call the DNA…Nature has used the smallest possible language to carry the information from father to children, from mother to children, from generation to generation…At no time is the human being a blob of protoplasm. As far as your nature is concerned, I see no difference between the early person that you were at conception and the late person which you are now. You were and are a human being."

When Dr. Lejeune testified in the Louisiana legislature he stated, "Recent discoveries by Dr. Alec Jeffreys of England demonstrate that the information (on the DNA molecule) is stored by a system of bar codes not unlike those found on products at the supermarkets…it’s not any longer a theory that each of us is unique."

In 1989, during testimony on The Seven Human Embryos in Tennessee, Dr. Lejeune made the following observation:

"...as soon as he has been conceived, a man is a man."

A United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee invited experts to testify on the question of when life begins. All of the quotes from the following experts come directly from the official government record of their testimony.¹

Dr. Alfred M. Bongioanni, professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University of Pennsylvania, stated:

"I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception.... I submit that human life is present throughout this entire sequence from conception to adulthood and that any interruption at any point throughout this time constitutes a termination of human life....

I am no more prepared to say that these early stages [of development in the womb] represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty...is not a human being. This is human life at every stage."

Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, Harvard University Medical School: "It is incorrect to say that biological data cannot be decisive.... It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception.... Our laws, one function of which is to help preserve the lives of our people, should be based on accurate scientific data."

Dr. Watson A. Bowes, University of Colorado Medical School: "The beginning of a single human life is from a biological point of view a simple and straightforward matter—the beginning is conception. This straightforward biological fact should not be distorted to serve sociological, political, or economic goals."

A prominent physician points out that at these Senate hearings, "Pro-abortionists, though invited to do so, failed to produce even a single expert witness who would specifically testify that life begins at any point other than conception or implantation."