Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
In recent years, the scientific community has made huge advances in its ability to manipulate life. This has resulted in a myriad of ethical questions being raised about the beginning of life; the value of life at different stages; and the endor endingof life. Because this is an issue that has implications for morning after birth control (e.g., Plan B), abortion at various stages of pregnancy, and embryonic stem cell research, we feel it is important to know what the evidence shows about the point at which life begins. Below we will quote authorities in several fields as they navigate this important topic. The quotes will be presented without comment because, for the most part, they speak for themselves. When does life begin? Dr. Alfred M. Bongioanni, professor of pediatrics and obstetrics, University of Pennsylvania:
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 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.[1]
Page 1
sperm, with just its 23 chromosomes, is not a human being; nor is an ovum, with its 23 chromosomes. But when they unite into one entity with 46 chromosomes, the result is a human being. This is a medical fact. Genetically, the fertilized ovum is a human being, with its own lifelong, characteristic code and identity. From this point on, it is simply a matter of its growth, not of its kind.[4]
Why are other indicators not valid benchmarks for determining when life begins? Birth? Welcome? John C. Willke:
The changes occurring between implantation, a six-week embryo, a sixmonth fetus, a one-week-old child, or a mature adult are merely stages of development and maturation. The majority of our group could find no point in time between the union of sperm and egg, or at least the blastocyst stage, and the birth of the infant at which point we could say that this was not a human life.[6 ]
Francis J. Beckwith:
First, though appearance can be helpful in determining what is or is not fully human, it is not a sufficient or a necessary condition for doing so. After all, mannequins in stores resemble humans and they are not even remotely human. On the other hand, some human oddities such as the elephant man or the bearded lady, are nonetheless fully human. The reason why we believe that the bearded lady and the elephant man are fully human and the mannequin is not is because the former are functioning individual organisms that genetically belong to the species Homo sapiens. The latter is an inanimate object. Second, Davis points out that this objection assumes that personhood presupposes a postnatal form. A little reflection, however, will show that the concept of a human form is a dynamic and not a static one. Each of us, during normal growth and development, exhibits a long succession of different outward forms. An early embryo, though not looking like a newborn, does look exactly like a human ought to look at this stage of his or her development. Thus, to insist that the appearance of an 80-year-old adult differs greatly from that of a newborn child, and yet we speak without hesitation of both as persons. In both cases, we have learned to recognize the physical appearances associated with those development stages as normal expressions of human personhood.[8]
Page 2
Page 3
T. W. Sadler:
[quote] The development of a human begins with fertilization, a process by which the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.[15]
Francis J. Beckwith:
It is often claimed by abortion-rights advocates that no one knows when life begins. Right away it must be observed that this formulation is imprecise. For no one who knows anything about prenatal development seriously doubts that individual biological human life is present from conception [by which he means what other are calling fertilization]. If it is true that we dont know when full humanness begins, this is an excellent reason not to kill the unborn, since we may be killing a human entity who has a full right to life. If game hunters shot at rustling bushes with this same philosophical mind-set, the National Rifle Associations membership would become severely depleted. Ignorance of a beings status is certainly not justification for killing it.[16]
Page 4
Human pregnancy begins with the fusion of the egg and the sperm.[17] This is so because the concern of Human Embryology is the human embryo whether it be in the fallopian tube, uterus, ectopically placed or in a petri dish. Additionally, for a pregnant woman, the expected time of delivery, fertilization age, time of gestation, or, the period of confinement is always calculated so that the time of pregnancy begins at fertilization.[18]
If you still have questions, isnt it better to err on the side of life?
Notes
1 Randy Alcorn, Scientists Attest To Life Beginning At Conception, http://www.epm.org/articles/ life_conception.html 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Dr. Norman L. Geisler, Common-Sense Answers to Arguments For Abortion, http:// www.leaderu.com/orgs/tul/faq.html 5 Randy Alcorn, Scientists Attest To Life Beginning At Conception, http://www.epm.org/articles/ life_conception.html, emphasis added. 6 John C. Willke, Abortion Questions and Answers (Cincinnati, OH: Hayes Publishing, 1988), p. 42, from Randy Alcorn, Scientists Attest To Life Beginning At Conception, http://www.epm.org/ articles/life_conception.html 7 Dr. Norman L. Geisler, Common-Sense Answers to Arguments For Abortion, http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/tul/faq.html 8 Francis J. Beckwith, Is the Unborn Less Than Human? 1991, 1998, Christian Research Institute. http://www.christiananswers.net/q-sum/q-life000.html, quoting John Jefferson Davis, Abortion and the Christian (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1984), p. 58.
Page 5
9 Dr. Norman L. Geisler, Common-Sense Answers to Arguments For Abortion, http:// www.leaderu.com/orgs/tul/faq.html 10 Andrew Varga, The Main Issues in Bioethics, Second edition (New York: Paulist Press, 1984), pp. 62-63, in Francis J. Beckwith, Is the Unborn Less Than Human? 1991, 1998, Christian Research Institute. http://www.christiananswers.net/q-sum/q-life000.html, quoting John Jefferson Davis, Abortion and the Christian (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1984), p. 58. 11 Ibid., p. 63. 12 Plan B Facts, http://www.planbfacts.com/ 13 Keith L. Moore, Essentials of Human Embryology. Toronto: B.C. Decker Inc, 1988, p.2 14 C. Ward Kischer, When Does Human Life Begin? The Final Answer: A human embryologist speaks out about socio-legal issues involving the human embryo. http://www.lifeissues.net/ writers/kisc/kisc_04whenlifebegins2.html 15 T. W. Sadler, Langmans Medical Embryology. 7th edition. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins 1995, p. 3 16 Francis J. Beckwith, Is the Unborn Less Than Human? 1991, 1998, Christian Research Institute. http://www.christiananswers.net/q-sum/q-life000.html 17 Carlson, Bruce. 1994. Human Embryology, p.1. Churchill - Livingston, New York. 18 C. Ward Kischer, When Does Human Life Begin? The Final Answer: A human embryologist speaks out about socio-legal issues involving the human embryo. http://www.lifeissues.net/ writers/kisc/kisc_04whenlifebegins2.html
Page 6