[puroresu]

Of course, individual liberty to make one's own choices, good or bad, is predicated upon the assumption that the choice in question isn't an act of direct harm to someone else. Science settled the issue of when a new human life begins in 1824, and that point is fertilization.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The extreme position of holding that a zygote should have all the same rights as a living breathing person, strikes me as very similar to the extremist animal-rights position that mice, chickens, etc. must never be killed. They're ALIVE! Who are we to say that a mouse's life is less valuable than a human life! scream the PETA nuts. And on a very technical, academic, philosophical level, they have a point. But common sense and gut instincts tell most of us that their position is impractical, hyper-emotional nonsense.

FWIW, until it is past the blastocyst stage, there is no reasonable basis whatosever for calling an embryo a "person", as it is still quite capable of turning into two (or more) people. A person doesn't divide. Amoebas divide, but people don't.