When does life begin? The crucial question.

As to the issue of conception while it may seem that it is an impossible task to define this medically, legally or religiously, it really is not from the standpoint of the abortion debate.

 

Medically, there is no evidence that a new life begins at conception or the point of fertilization. I know this hard for anti-abortionists to accept, but its the facts. I am not saying that an ovum (a fertilized egg) is not a potential human, but then an egg or sperm is also a potential human under the right conditions (fertilization).

 

The reason for taking this perspective is that without evidence of when life begins religion of all kinds need to be left at the door since not everyone is a person of faith and trying to force this issue will only create the kind of insurmountable barriers to agreements that have epitomized this social debate. People of faith should apply their beliefs to the education and propagation of their beliefs to potential recipients of abortions. Said another way, it is impossible to legislate morals. It is a political solution that cuts both ways.

 

There is also no religious evidence or statement of Biblical law that says life begins at conception. The best that the Bible offers is that it clearly states that "life is in the blood...", or that God "breathed the breath of life" into Adam.

 

Now a simple solution is to take an event during the gestation process upon which people of faith and humanism can agree upon that life is definitely present in the fetal process. I believe that this point is the instant of a fetal heart beat. Once a heart beat can be detected, all rights and protection of the political process should be afforded the potential citizen.

 

Due to current medical technologies and services, a woman can determine her pregnancy status well before the 6-8 weeks event horizon of when a fetal heart beat can be detected. So using the event of fetal heart detection can be the point beyond which an abortion is not allowed unless the mother's life is in imminent danger from the continued pregnancy process. In this case, I don't believe that one life, the mother's, is more or less important than the potential human baby. However, the mother's life must be verifiably in jeopardy before an abortion should be considered.

 

I do not believe that abortions should be upon request or for any reason at any time as many of the pro-abortionists believe it should. Remember, in California, people have been convicted of double homicide for murdering a pregnant mother. This should pretty much settle this issue.