AP3W0805.pdf (application/pdf Object)

AP3W0805.pdf (application/pdf Object)
  What Does Science Reveal
about When Life Begins?
John Ankerberg and John Weldon
The most dangerous place in the world is in the womb. —Cardinal Sin of the
Philippines1
The fact that abortion and infanticide result in the destruction of innocent
human beings cannot, in itself, be a reason for viewing such actions as wrong.
—-Michael Tooley2
What does modern science conclude about when human life begins?
Many people mistakenly feel that abortion is a “religious” issue. But it is not. It
is a scientific issue and, specifically, a biological issue. The scientific authorities
on when life begins are biologists. But these are often the last people consulted
in seeking an answer to the question. What modern science has concluded is
crystal clear: Human life begins at conception. This is a matter of scientific fact,
not philosophy, speculation, opinion, conjecture, or theory. Today, the evidence
that human life begins at conception is a fact so well documented that no intellectually
honest and informed scientist or physician can deny it.
In 1973, the Supreme Court concluded in its Roe v. Wade decision that it did
not have to decide the “difficult question” of when life begins. Why? In essence,
they said, “It is impossible to say when human life begins.”3 The Court misled the
public then, and others continue to mislead the public today.
Anyone familiar with recent Supreme Court history knows that two years
before Roe V. Wade, in October 1971, a group of 220 distinguished physicians,
scientists, and professors submitted an amicus curiae brief (advice to a court on
some legal matter) to the Supreme Court. They showed the Court how modern
science had already established that human life is a continuum and that the
unborn child from the moment of conception on is a person and must be considered
a person, like its mother.4 The brief set as its task “to show how clearly and
conclusively modern science—embryology, fetology, genetics, perinatology, all of
biology—establishes the humanity of the unborn child.”5 For example,
In its seventh week, [the pre-born child] bears the familiar external features
and all the internal organs of the adult.... The brain in configuration is already
© 2005 Ankerberg Theological Research Institute Page 2
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