Human life begins at conception
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The slogan "human life begins at conception" embodies pro-life advocates' position that a new human being comes into existence at the moment an ovum is fertilized. The unstated assumption behind the slogan is that "personhood" begins at the same time as "human life", and therefore the fertilized egg is a person with a right to life from the very moment of conception.
Pro-choice advocates argue that the slogan human life begins at conception is potentially confusing or misleading. They agree that it may be technically true in one sense, but charge that it deliberately uses ambiguous language to gloss over the crucial issue of the time personhood begins at - an issue on which there is a wide scale of opinion. They attribute any force the slogan has to the exploitation of this confusion.
See also:
External links
- Survey of several alternative definitions (http://www.pregnantpause.org/develop/when.htm)
- Some less-common scientific viewpoints - An interesting list but the author does seem to conflate the terms 'life' and personhood. (http://zygote.swarthmore.edu/intro5.html)
- Abortion viewpoint (http://www.andkon.com/stuf/abortion/) - A short essay arguing that "a fetus is a human and not a parasite".
- - Personhood and the Conception Event by Robert E. Joyce. (http://www.homestead.com/lifemeaning/Personhood.html)