WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN?

is a question that biological science readily answers.

Supporting References
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A new individual is created when the elements of a potent sperm merge with those of a fertile ovum, or egg.
Encyclopedia Britannica, “Pregnancy,” page 968, 15th Edition, Chicago 1974.
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Development begins at fertilization when a sperm fuses with an ovum to form a zygote; this cell is the beginning of a new human being.
Moore, Keith L., The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, page 12, W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia, 1974.
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It is the penetration of the ovum by a spermatozoa and the resulting mingling of the nuclear material each brings to the union that constitutes the culmination process of fertilization and marks the initiation of the life of an individual.
Patten, Bradley M., Human Embryology, page 43, McGraw Hill, New York, 1968.
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Almost from the moment of conception, great quantities of these biochemical messengers appear in the cell, indicating that at the direction of the DNA, the vital processes of the new organism have swung into action…Even when the organism consists of only one cell, researchers have been able to demonstrate the presence of two new proteins…complex molecules which were not present in the unfertilised egg…By all criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception.
Gordon, Hymie, M.D., F.R.C.P., Chairman of Medical Genetics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, Testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, April 13, 1981.
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…The merger is complete within twelve hours, at which time the egg – which may have “waited” as many as forty years for this moment – is fertilized and becomes known technically as the “zygote,” containing the full set of forty-six chromosomes required to create human life. Conception has occurred. The genotype – the inherited characteristics of a unique human being – is established in the conception process and will remain in force for the entire life of that individual. No other event in biological life is so decisive as this one; no other set of circumstances can even remotely rival genotype in “making you what you are.” Conception confers life and makes you one of a kind. Unless you have an identical twin, there is virtually no chance, in the natural course of things, that there will be “another you” – not even if mankind were to persist for billions of years.
Shettles, Landrum, M.D., Rorvik, David, Rites of Life: The Scientific Evidence for Life Before Birth, page 36, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983.
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The zygote therefore contains a new arrangement of genes on the chromosomes never before duplicated in any other individual. The offspring destined to develop from the fertilized ovum will have a genetic constitution different from anyone else in the world.
DeCoursey, R.M., The Human Organism, 4th edition, page 584, McGraw Hill Inc., Toronto, 1974.
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In that fraction of a second when the chromosomes form pairs, the sex of the new child will be determined, hereditary characteristics received from each parent will be set, and a new life will have begun.
Kaluger, G., and Kaluger, M., Human Development: The Span of Life, page 28-29, The C.V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, 1974.
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The science of the development of the individual before birth is called embryology. It is the story of miracles, describing the means by which a single microscopic cell is transformed into a complex human being. Genetically the zygote is complete. It represents a new single celled individual.
Thibodeau, G.A., and Anthony, C.P., Structure and Function of the Body, 8th edition, pages 409-419, St. Louis: Times Mirror/Mosby College Publishers, St. Louis, 1988.
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The development of a new human being begins when a male’s sperm pierces the cell membrane of a female’s ovum, or egg…The villi become the placenta, which will nourish the developing infant for the next eight and a half months.
Scarr, S., Weinberg, R.A., and Levine A., Understanding Development, page 86, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1986.
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Each human begins life as a combination of two cells, a female ovum and a much smaller male sperm. This tiny unit, no bigger than a period on this page, contains all the information needed to enable it to grow into the complex structure of the human body. The mother has only to provide nutrition and protection.
Clark, J. ed., The Nervous System: Circuits of Communication in the Human Body, page 99, Torstar Books Inc., Toronto, 1985.
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A zygote (a single fertilized egg cell) represents the onset of pregnancy and the genesis of new life.
Turner, J.S., and Helms, D.B., Lifespan Developmental, 2nd ed., page 53, CBS College Publishing (Holt, Rhinehart, Winston), 1983.
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…Since the old ethic has not yet been fully displaced it has been necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing, which continues to be socially abhorrent. The result has been a curious avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra- or extra-uterine until death…The very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not put forth under socially impeccable auspices.
California Medicine, Editorial, “A New Ethic for Medicine and Society,” page 67, September, 1970.
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