When Does Life Begin?

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Scientific and medical opinion regarding the status of embryonic life has not shifted in the last three decades, according to Christian ethicist Paul D. Simmons. New technologies enable viewing the fetus during various stages of development but there are no instruments to measure the presence of personhood. While there is agreement about the gestational facts (that there are four stages of gestational development: zygote, blastocyst, embryo, and fetus) and that each person began with conception and implantation, that does not mean that every step along the continuum has the same value. Science provides the data of biological development; religion and personal values provide our sense of morality and the worth we attach to various entities. Functional physiological and neurological developments are required for one to become a person, but there are stages during gestation in which there is inadequate development to constitute an entity that should be accorded full legal or even religious status as a person. A person is a complex creature that has moved from genetic individuality (DNA) through functional, behavioral, physical and social dimensions. A genetic formula is not the equivalent of a person, nor is it “a person with potential.”