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."

When is ABORTION Justified?

Alright boys and girls... this one might leave a mark and you might feel a little sting.
I spent some time reviewing the candidates for the 2007 Worst Blog of the Year award (Oklahoma) and certainly learned more than I wanted to about each of the nominees (VOTE in the right margin). Now I'm not going to steal the thunder from an upcoming post by "The Better Half", but in looking at the blog "I Am Emily X", I found some staggering comments by the paranoid but proud worker-bee at the Planned Un-parenthood here in OKC.
We'll just leave it at that for the moment, but it does cause me to post this next one which I had written some time ago on ABORTION and updated. I apologize in advance for the length of the post, but this is not a soundbite subject. I will try and be as clear and short as possible.

“Unwanted Pregnancy”

This is a term used frequently by abortion supporters but what exactly is an “unwanted pregnancy” anyway?

Does it mean someone WANTED to GET pregnant (or didn’t care enough to prevent it) but then (after getting pregnant) decided that she didn’t want to actually BE pregnant?

Or does it mean that she simply never thought about it and didn’t ask herself that question (do I care if I get pregnant now) beforehand and therefore is allowed to (after the fact) make the decision?

Is an unwanted pregnancy a justifiable reason to commit homicide?

One must consider how many ways are there to keep from getting pregnant in the first place.
(About a zillion...or more)

Which leads to asking how many legitimate ways are there to accidentally/unintentionally get pregnant?

Primarily two (rape and incest) since there is no such thing as “swimming pool” babies or airborne viruses that randomly cause unwanted pregnancy. (return to this point below) Contraception failure is extremely rare, but does also occur.

In fact it is much more difficult to GET pregnant than to NOT get pregnant.

A woman can only get pregnant about 4-5 days out of each 28-30 day cycle. (60 days maximum out of each 365 days) It is truly a “MIRACLE”!!

God made it that way (fairly difficult) for a reason.

We, as simple human beings, can only appreciate the gift of LIFE if it were not so easy to make happen. If women had litters or got pregnant every month, then it could be a burden and a "problem". But it isn’t either a burden or problem since it is a choice that one must take very seriously BEFORE the choice is made.

The baby human infant heart starts to beat at a mere 2 weeks after CONCEPTION. (which is at 1 week/1 late period). If you stop a living, beating, human heart, then what else can it be besides murder? Justifiable homicide under the “best” of conditions.

All any person has to do is use protection or abstain from sex for those 4-5 days/month to avoid getting pregnant. That is it. She can track which days those are quite easily by temperature and other means including instant at-home ovulation tests (for $1 ea).

So, how many ways are there to get pregnant without FIRST making the CHOICE to have unprotected sex? (basically two)

Rape and incest. These two examples represent less than 0.01% of all abortions in the US (9,000/1.3mi+) yet are used as some of the primary reasons for abortion rights. It is debatable if even under these circumstances abortion is appropriate. Here is an article by a group of Physicians on the subject of rare cases where abortion is justified including when the health of the mother is at risk.

"The unborn child’s right to life and liberty is given by his or her Creator, not by his or her parents or by the state. The right to life is inalienable: that is, not to be trespassed upon by another."

How can it be justified for a pregnant woman (who intended to get pregnant) to suddenly get mad at her husband (or significant other) and decide to kill THEIR unborn child as punishment for something he may or may not have done (without consulting him or anyone else) late in the pregnancy or even after the unborn child is capable of living outside the womb?

There is currently nothing to stop her and apparently (according to many) nothing wrong with it. There are more of these type abortions than the two examples (rape and incest) above COMBINED.

How can it be okay for a 13, 14. 15, 16 year old to (with the school nurse’s help) sneak out and get an abortion without parental consent, yet the school nurse can’t give her an aspirin without parental consent? (or not at some schools even WITH parental consent)

How did we become a society that would rather “kill the unborn baby” than to prevent the "unwanted pregnancy" from happening in the first place?

Now, don’t get me wrong I’m all about choices. Good choices however not bad ones.
I will defend an adult woman’s right to do with her body what she wants… (as long as it doesn’t involve killing someone else).

But 2007 is not 1807 or even 1957.

Today, there are more ways to keep from getting pregnant than there are ways to have sex (and get pregnant).

Women who cannot afford contraception can get it for free.

Men can purchase a condom at virtually every gas station, grocery store or pharmacy for a couple of quarters, and women can simply say “no protection - no sex”.

But that is not enough for the “murdering moms” and Planned un-Parenthood.
They pretend pregnancy is like an air-born “virus” that women get by just walking around at the mall and therefore they have the right (or duty) to kill that unwanted “virus”.

"Speaking for the PP, Dr. Warren Hern refers to human pregnancy as "an episodic, moderately extended chronic condition ... May be defined as an illness ... Treated by evacuation of the uterine contents..."("Is Pregnancy Really Normal?" Family Planning Perspective, Planned Parenthood, vol. 3, No. 1, Jan. 1971, pg. 9)"

How in the wide world of sports can liberal-left Democrats protest passionately against capitol punishment for convicted mass murderers, but support capitol punishment for innocent unborn children?

Someone explain that one to me.

If Mary and Joseph were alive today and living in America, would Mary choose to kill her unborn child rather than try and convince her husband that God is actually the baby’s father and that she had NOT been unfaithful? (good luck with that one)

If YOU were chosen by God to have HIS son, would you have the “right” to CHOOSE to kill that unborn baby and deprive the world of His grace?

In fact, all babies are given to us by the grace of God, no matter when or how they were conceived.

Women are quick to blame the problems of the world on men and our violent ways yet it is women who are responsible for the needless slaughter of millions of unborn children each and every year. Hundreds of times the number of deaths in a war that people protest over each and every death. Well over 5 million American children have died from abortion just since the start of the Iraq war. All justified?

Women get away with murder every single day and call it a simple choice.

We all assume that women have been hardwired with compassion. But, where is the compassion in this kind of genocidal murder? What kind of woman could do that to her own flesh and blood without thinking twice?
Answer: They don’t think twice and it is the job of people like Planned Un-parenthood to make sure they don’t think twice by denying them access to sonograms, information on adoption and alternatives to abortion.

Natural? You never see any other animal on this planet intentionally kill its UNBORN babies in an act of genocide for any reason. It doesn’t happen. Yes, you will see an animal kill it’s young after being touched by humans and you will see male animals killing small babies as a part of self preservation, but NEVER before they are even born as a “choice” or because it just wasn’t “a good time” for them. Nature takes care of such matters very effectively.

If abortion HAD been a common practice 100 or 200 years ago, would we have ever known George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Marie Currie, Martin Luther King, or Albert Einstein? What if Hillary Roddam Clinton’s mother had felt the way Hillary feels about abortion, would we have a Hillary running for President today?

What great works of art or literature would have never been written had the mothers of those individuals “chosen” to kill them before they were born?

If we truly are a compassionate higher species, then we need to BAN genocidal baby-killing in our lifetime. As the Doctors I mentioned (and linked )above wrote...

"In conclusion, there are no occasions in which the intentional killing of the pre-born child is justified. Scientific fact and divine law are clear: life begins at conception, and there are no exceptions to the prohibition of intentionally killing an innocent human being. We must stand true to these foundational principles through every emotional appeal and in every tragic scenario if we are to have any principles at all for which to stand."

UPDATE: 10/24-07 Sarah raised some very good points in the comments section which are fairly well addressed by the Association of Pro-Life Physicians such as When Does Human Life Begin?. The legal system is wrestling with this issue as well.. What is a human being?

Thanks for linking to this post Oklahoma Lefty

Update2: 10/25- Coining the term First degree prenatal justifiable homicide. "1st degree (premeditated) Prenatal (unborn infant) *Justifiable Homicide (death of another resulting from justifiable actions) . Yes, I'm aware of this case... tough call. But my definition wouldn't criminalize "the big A" but merely calls it what it is... and in fact would legalize it...(but expose it).

Then you can be as "pro-choice" as you want. Under my definition the debate would be about the "Justifiable" part (when it is and when it isn't) instead of assuming it is only a womens health right. Under my definition, (1st degree PJH) self defense would be considered "justifiable" to most people for example. Involuntary prenatal manslaughter could apply to car accidents... and so on. Now, of course I'm no downtown city laawyah, nor do I claim to be, I'm just sayin'... the unborn are human beings and might deserve to be protected by the same laws as the rest of us.

- Red S Tater