Why We’re Pro-Life by Trent Horn of Catholic Answers
WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN?
Deep down, we know that the unborn aren’t just clumps of cells because
we don’t treat them like that when they are wanted.
When people want a human fetus or embryo, they call him or her an
“unborn child” or a “baby.” We talk to them in the womb, share their
cute ultrasound images, and give them names. If this unborn child dies
naturally from a miscarriage, we mourn and express our condolences for
the parents who “lost a baby.”
If the child dies because of an act of negligence or violence—like when
a drunk driver kills a pregnant woman in an accident—we consider that
an additional evil. And in many places the perpetrator is charged with
two counts of homicide, not one.
None of this makes sense if the unborn are mere tissue or “clumps of
cells” rather than human beings who are just much smaller than you or
me.
So, how can we know if the unborn are human beings or not?
Scientifically, the answer isn’t hard to find. Even prochoice scholars agree that the unborn are
simply very young members of the human species. The terms embryo and fetus refer to the stages
of development that occur before the post-birth stages of infant, toddler, adolescent, and adult. An
embryo is a human being from conception until the seventh week of life and a fetus is a human
being from the eighth week of life until birth.
In this, humans are no different from other mammals. Go online and look at amazing photos of
other mammal embryos and fetuses photographed in the womb. These aren’t “potential elephants” or “potential dolphins.” They are instead very small dolphins and very small elephants
getting ready to be born.
This makes sense logically as well as biologically. After all, if a living thing’s parents are dogs,
then that living thing will be a dog. If the parents are cats, the living thing will be a cat. If the parents are human, that living thing will be human—with his or her own body and DNA, distinct
from the mother.
But so what? a pro-choicer might say. Every cell in my body is alive and human with human
DNA. Is every cell in my body—hair cells, skin cells, sperm and egg cells—a human being?
All those things are “human” in the adjective sense of the word, since they possess human DNA.
But fetuses and toddlers are also human in the noun sense of the word. They aren’t just human—
they are a human. Specifically, they are human organisms, individual members of the human species.
Body cells such as skin, sperm, and egg cells can never, on their own, develop into an adult human organism. This is true no matter what environment they’re in, or how much time and nutrition they get. But an embryo or fetus, when given time, nutrition, and the proper environment (the
uterus) will continue to develop into a more mature human being until adulthood, because he or
she was a human organism from the very start.
Science confirms this. Embryologist E.L. Potter points out, “Every time a sperm cell and ovum
unite, a new being is created which is alive and will continue to live unless its death is brought
about by some specific condition.”
An unborn child isn’t something that can develop into a human being. It is a human
being in the process of developing into a more mature human being.
The standard medical text Human Embryology and Teratology states, “Although human life is a
continuous process, fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a
new, genetically distinct human organism is formed.”3 Among embryologists, the preferred term
for the beginning of life is fertilization rather than conception. Keith Moore and T.V.N. Persaud’s
textbook The Developing Human states, “Human life begins at fertilization,” and Langman’s
Medical Embryology also states, “Development begins with fertilization.”4 In 2019, Ph.D. student Steve Jacobs wrote an article called, “I Asked Thousands of Biologists When Life Begins.
The Answer Wasn’t Popular.” He relates, “As the usable responses began to come in, I found that
5,337 biologists, or 96 percent of the survey, affirmed that a human’s life begins at fertilization.”
This was the case even though 85 percent of the respondents identified as “pro-choice.”
Horn, Trent. “When does Life begin?” Why We Are Pro Life, Catholic Answers, Inc., El Cajon, California, 2022, pp. 9-12.