Life begins at conception

Yes, I understand that a fetus isn't fully developed yet and it cannot live outside its mother's womb. However, that does not prove that the fetus is not human. If someone were to be born with a disorder that caused them to not be able to feel, would you say they are no longer a human? Basic biology agrees that a human life does indeed start at conception. When the haploid sperm and egg combine, they create a zygote cell that works just like human cells, not frog cells, not pig cells. This cell rapidly divides into other human cells in which start to specify. This biological fact does not make it so the fetus is not a human anymore, that is where you are wrong. A fetus is very much human, the only factor that makes it less human is because it isn't fully developed and it cannot live out of its mother's womb. That is an ignorant assumption, right there we can assume that a growing tomato on a vine is not a tomato, when in fact it is. The tomato contains tomato genetics and tomato characteristics, even though the characteristics are not exactly fully developed. Same with the fetus, it has working DNA and blood cells that are human DNA and blood cells, how could it not be human? "Science teaches without reservation that life begins at conception. It is a scientific fact that an organism exists after conception that did not exist before conception. This new organism has its own DNA distinct from the mother and father, meaning that it is neither part of the mother nor part of father. As the embryo grows, it develops a heartbeat (22 days after conception), its own circulatory system, and its own organs. From conception it is a new organism that is alive and will continue to grow and develop as long as nutrition is provided and its life is not ended through violence or illness. DNA Artistic metal representation of DNA double helix structure. It is indisputably human, as it has human DNA. The offspring of two members of a species is always the same type of creature as the parents. No two dogs will ever conceive and give birth to a cat; no fish egg will ever produce a snake. According to all the laws of nature, the unborn baby is human. Scientific textbooks proclaim this fact. Keith L. Moore"s The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (7th edition, Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003) states the following: A zygote [fertilized egg] is the beginning of a new human being. Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete " unites with a female gamete or oocyte " to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks the beginning of each of us as a unique individual. Hi, kids! The term "zygote" is a scientific term for the new life that is created when the sperm and the egg combine. "Oocyte" is another term for the egg cell, the cell released by woman"s ovary which travels down the fallopian tube and is fertilized by the male sperm. The author of this scientific textbook, Keith L. Moore, is a world-renowned embryologist. He has written a number of definitive books on embryology, and his scientific knowledge and experience are vast and beyond reproach. Few medical students can complete their careers without studying from his textbooks. Moore puts it even more plainly in Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology (7th edition, Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2008, p. 2): [The zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and a sperm, is the beginning of a new human being. Here is an example from another scientific work. From Human Embryology & Teratology (Ronan R. O"Rahilly, Fabiola Muller [New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996], 5-55): Fertilization is an important landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed[.] This third embryology textbook is as clear as the first two " fertilization is the beginning of new life and the start of a new, distinct human organism. From T.W. Sadler, Langman"s Medical Embryology (10th edition, Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006, p. 11): Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male gamete, the sperm, and the femal gamete, the oocyte, unite to give rise to a zygote. And in another source (Ronan O"Rahilly and Fabiola Miller, Human Embryology and Teratology [3rd edition, New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001, p. 8]): Although life is a continuous process, fertilization " is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte. In yet another textbook (William J. Larsen, Essentials of Human Embryology [New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1998, pp. 1, 14]), we read the following: . Human embryos begin development following the fusion of definitive male and female gametes during fertilization[.] " This moment of zygote formation may be taken as the beginning or zero time point of embryonic development. As we can see, embryology textbooks are unanimous: life begins at fertilization. And the life that begins is not simply a continuation of the life of the sperm or egg cell. Rather, it is the life of a distinct, unique, new individual which has never existed before in history and will never exist again. Nothing will be added to the new organism except nutrition, and it will continue to grow and develop until death occurs due to injury or illness. Lennart Nilsson was a photographer who took the first pictures of unborn embryos and fetuses and made them available in his famous book A Child is Born. In the introduction to this book, which contains beautiful full-color pictures of unborn babies in different stages of development, he says: " but the whole story does not begin with delivery. The baby has existed for months before " at first signaling its presence only with small outer signs, later on as a somewhat foreign little being which has been growing and gradually affecting the lives of those close by[.] This incredible book shows gorgeous photographs of the unborn baby from conception to birth. We see the shape of the six-week-old embryo begin to resemble the profile of the baby who will be born. We see the tiny, fully formed fingers of an eight-week-old unborn baby. It is a remarkable book that many expectant mothers have seen, and its photographs have been reproduced many times. The word "embryo" is defined as such (Considine, Douglas [ed.], Van Nostrand"s Scientific Encyclopedia, 5th edition, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1976, p. 943): Embryo: The developing individual between the union of the germ cells and the completion of the organs which characterize its body when it becomes a separate organism. " At the moment the sperm cell of the human male meets the ovum of the female and the union results in a fertilized ovum (zygote), a new life has begun[.] And yet another textbook (Carlson, Bruce M. Patten"s Foundations of Embryology, 6th edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, p. 3) states: Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)[.] " The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual. This is a mere handful of excerpts from medical textbooks. In fact, try as you might, you will never find a book on genetics or embryology that does not state that life begins at conception. National Geographic put together a television program ("In the Womb," 2005) documenting the development of the baby throughout pregnancy. In the introduction of their program, they sum up the scientific knowledge of the beginning of life in the following way: The two cells gradually and gracefully become one. This is the moment of conception, when an individual"s unique set of DNA is created, a human signature that never existed before and will never be repeated." http://liveactionnews.org......