Our Marvelous Beginning

This is the marvelous story of how the life of each of us began. Please look at the photograph on the right. This baby has been growing for only six weeks, or eight weeks since her mother's last menstrual period. Observe that this baby has fingers and eyes. The baby's heart has been beating for three weeks. This photograph is of a child who came from a tubal pregnancy in her mother, and at the time this photograph was made, this child was still alive. Unfortunately, we do not yet have the technology to save these children's lives, and we must take them to protect their mothers from death.

Look also to the left. The border shows a closeup of this baby's face and fingers.

Concerning a child such as the one in this photograph, Paul E. Rockwell, M.D., says, "Eleven years ago while giving an anesthetic for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy (at 8 weeks gestation), I was handed what I believe was the smallest living human ever seen. The embryonic sac was intact and transparent. Within the sac was a tiny human male swimming extremely vigorously in the amniotic fluid, while attached to the wall by the umbilical cord. This tiny human was perfectly developed, with long, tapering fingers, feet and toes. It was almost transparent, as regards the skin, and the delicate arteries and veins were prominent to the ends of the fingers. The baby was extremely alive and swam about the sac approximately one time per second, with a natural swimmer's stroke. This tiny human did not look at all like the photos and drawings and models of 'embryos' which I had seen, nor did it look like a few embryos I have been able to observe since then, obviously because this one was alive! When the sac was opened, the tiny human immediately lost his life and took on the appearance of what is accepted as the appearance of an embryo at this stage of life (with blunt extremities etc.)," as quoted by Dr. and Mrs. J.C. Willke in their Handbook on Abortion.

Brain waves have been detected at 40 days after conception, by electroencephalograph. Nearly all abortions are done after this point. As we shall show, the formation and function of the brain and the nervous system are required for the body to form.

On the first day of our lives, conception takes place.

A human life begins when one of approximately 3 million sperm penetrates the mother's ovum or egg, resulting in fertilization. Conception is the moment at which the sperm penetrates the ovum. After one sperm penetrates, the surface changes so that no other sperm may enter. It takes approximately a day for the genetic material of both egg and sperm to merge and organize. This single cell now begins to divide into smaller cells, with the number doubling approximately once a day. The decision of whether to produce twins is made when the baby has only three cells. It can be said that when twins are produced, the baby is the parent of two. This is a form of asexual reproduction.

At sixteen cells, the baby's body resembles a mulberry and is called a morula. The new being is also called a zygote from the time of fertilization, until she implants herself in the wall of her mother's uterus at the age of three to seven days. She now has two layers. One layer will form the baby's part of their placenta, and the other will form her body.

At this point, hormones caused by the embryo will stop her mother's menstrual period. At this very young age, the baby communicates with her mother through chemicals and hormones.

What does science have to say about when a new human life begins?

In several surveys of biology and embryology textbooks, it has been found that almost without exception, if the book makes any statement about when human life begins, it says that human life begins at conception. The beginning of human life is not a philosophical issue, but a scientific one.