WHEN DOES LIFE BECOME HUMAN LIFE?

The human ovum (egg) is already clearly alive. Women release one about each month between puberty and menopause - a few hundred in a lifetime. Almost all of these are destined to die and be ejected from the body. Unless infertility is a problem, very little thought is given to these hundreds of deaths. Although the ovum is a form of life, it is not human life.

Hundreds of millions of male sperm are liberated during a typical sexual encounter. They are also clearly alive. Viewing them under a microscope reveals them to be energetic swimmers. Essentially all of these will die within days. Again, if infertility is not a concern, little attention is given to these deaths. An average man produces thousands of sperm a second. At most, a very few will contribute to the formation of a baby. The rest will die. Few men are consciously aware of the loss. Sperm are very much alive and kicking; but they are not human life.

The meeting of sperm and ovum often causes conception which may produce a newborn baby some nine months later. There exists a consensus that an infant is the most precious form of life on earth, and needs to be protected under law.

The philosophical and religious principle behind the pro-choice/pro-life argument is: when does life (in the form of an ovum and sperm) become human life?. After that event occurs, terminating life is a form of murder which many people believe can only be justified to prevent the death of the mother.

Unfortunately, there is no consensus of when that event occurs:

• Most people in the pro-life camp believe that this happens at conception. That is, a just-fertilized egg is a full human being and should be protected as such.
• Aristotle (384-322 BCE) wrote in one of his biological treatises (1) that the male embryo develops a human soul about 40 days after conception, whereas a female fetus acquires its soul at about 90 days. For much of its history, the Christian Church believed in this delayed-ensoulment principle and allowed first trimester abortions.
• Some people feel that this transition to human life happens at a certain stage in the development of the fetus:
  • when the fetus loses its gill slits and tail and begins to "look like" a baby, or
  • when the fetus becomes viable, or
  • when its brain has developed to a particular degree. "Scientists have found hints of consciousness in 7-month-old fetuses and measured brain-wave patterns like those during dreaming during 8 months." (2)
  The medical profession appears to follow the viability criteria. Medical societies enforce regulations prohibiting abortions after (typically) 20 or 21 weeks of pregnancy. The US Supreme Court also used viability as a significant event; it allows states to prohibit abortions after viability.
• Some believe that the fetus becomes a human being only after it has been delivered and is breathing on its own.

No consensus and no compromise appears possible. To a person who believes that human life begins at conception, an abortion clinic is the ethical equivalence to a Nazi death camp; to a person who believes that life becomes human life at, say 20 weeks, a first trimester abortion (i.e. during the three months following conception) is a regrettable option, but often the most moral choice for a pregnant woman.

Public opinion surveys give conflicting results, depending upon the exact questions asked. It would appear that a significant majority of adults in the US and Canada agree that a woman should have free access to abortion in at least the first trimester.