Over the months, Allen's complex formulation has confused some voters. Robert D. Holsworth, director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Public Policy, said this is one debate where the usually plain-spoken Allen is inclined to give a very nuanced answer. He supports ending legal abortion, and he is trying to mask that view with rhetoric that suggests he might be open to some right of choice. He needs to be honest with the voters of Virginia about what he really believes. It's when you're brain dead, your heart's stopped beating, you don't react to touch.
Doctors say the science of fetal development has remained the same for decades.
After an egg is fertilized, it spends a week in the fallopian tube before traveling to the uterus. Once there, it grows from a ball of cells to something that looks like a hollowed-out raspberry. The heart is one of the very first structures to show activity as the fetus is developing. Brain waves are a more complicated matter. Larsen said it is still very hard to distinguish between the electrical impulses being emitted from the mother or the child.