It has never been legally determined as to when life begins and since this is known the Court is morally and legally[constitutionally] obliged to reverse itself.Congress or the state legislatures can reverse it.
1. When does life begin?
* In 1981 (April 23-24) a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held hearings on the very question before us here: When does human life begin? Appearing to speak on behalf of the scientific community was a group of internationally-known geneticists and biologists who had the same story to tell, namely, that human life begins at conception - and they told their story with a profound absence of opposing testimony.
Dr. Micheline M. Mathews-Roth, Harvard medical School, gave confirming testimony, supported by references from over 20 embryology and other medical textbooks that human life began at conception.
* "Father of Modern Genetics" Dr. Jerome Lejeune told the lawmakers: "To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion ... it is plain experimental evidence."
* Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman, Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic, added: "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception."
* Dr. McCarthy de Mere, medical doctor and law professor, University of Tennessee, testified: "The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception."
* Dr. Alfred Bongiovanni, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, concluded, "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."
* Dr. Richard V. Jaynes: "To say that the beginning of human life cannot be determined scientifically is utterly ridiculous."
* Dr. Landrum Shettles, sometimes called the "Father of In Vitro Fertilization" notes, "Conception confers life and makes that life one of a kind." And on the Supreme Court ruling _Roe v. Wade_, "To deny a truth [about when life begins] should not be made a basis for legalizing abortion."
* Professor Eugene Diamond: "...either the justices were fed a backwoods biology or they were pretending ignorance about a scientific certainty[internet]
2.Does abortion end a human life?
First, when does human life begin? According to physicians, biologists and scientists:
conception (fertilization) marks the beginning of the life of a human being ... There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological and scientific writings."1
Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session 1981, p.7[internet]
I ask are human being and person identical? What is a human being if it is not a person?
Blackmum's statement on Roe vs Wade:"We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins when those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine,philosophy,and theology are unable to arrive at any concensus,the judiciary,at this point in the development of man's knowledge,is not prepared to speculate as to the answer."
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee,Apr.23-24,1981 determined that the Court had all the necessary evidence as given above and more than enough knowledge was available not to make the ruling they made.[internet]
Now are a human being and person the same thing the obvious answer is yes.
If you have a conceptus that is obviously human,a real entity or being,living,undergoing constant organized change and movement or motion,a unique individual being formed once the sperm fertilizes the ovum,it necessarily is a person.Every being must have a subject that undergoes change and motion.What would be the reason for change unless there is a subject of its change and motion.The subject here must be a person since like generates like.Things change and they have a name.Embryo and fetus simply denote size or quantity of matter visibly present.What is the cause of this life and the cause of this intrinsic motion.There must be some guiding principle just as there must be guiding principles of right reasoning.Thinking follows certain intrinsic principles or goes haywire.
The entity or being that is human and alive has a principle of motion and change and must be possessed by a subject.This subject is the person.
So abortion ends a human life and there is no such thing as a human life that is not possessed by a person.The conceptus is an actual constituted being and this being is a person.There is no such thing as a human life that isn't a person.
Just as the walnut is the smallest tree so the conceptus is the smallest person.
A tadpole is an actual being or a being in act.Does it become a frog or is the tadpole an actual being that cannot become a frog because it already is a frog. It will aquire its final form by change and internal movement to become the full grown frog which it always was to begin with.
Comments
great answer
by fearfulkitty on July 14th, 2008
but by then, I'm sure medicine will advance far enough that the mother will be able to terminate upon conception without the use of a doctor or the state. I don't see your prediction as any champion of pro-life. If true, it means a lot more neglected, poor, hungry children will be around.
by king of ellipses on July 14th, 2008
I am not trying to champion any cause. I am simply providing the legal analysis. If a fetus is a person with rights, then the fact that more "neglected, poor, hungry children" will exist is irrelevant. If the fetus is a person with rights, then killing the fetus is the same as killing the child after it is born. On the other hand, if the fetus is not a person with rights, then abortion does not affect legal rights (and the choice to allow it would be up to the states).
by Anonymous on July 14th, 2008
I will bet if you gave those "neglected, poor, hungry children" a choice they would still choose to be born.
by fearfulkitty on July 14th, 2008
It's unlikely you're going to "punch a woman in the stomach at 9.5 months" as term gestation is only 9 months or 40 weeks!! Just a FYI
by denniswilliams on February 27th, 2010
That is incorrect. A term pregnancy is 40 weeks (280 days), which is 9.25 months. It is fairly common for a woman to begin labor early or late by one week. Hence, my example provided a scenario where a child is as developed as it realistically could be, yet not born.
by Anonymous on March 26th, 2010