The Development of the Preborn Child
Author: Eugene Pivato
© 1992: The Right to Life Association of Toronto and Area
Definitions
Baby is defined as "an extremely young child; the youngest member of a group" (Webster's Third New International Dictionary, G & C Merriam Co., Toronto, 1981, p. 156). Child is defined as "infant; baby, an unborn offspring; fetus" and derives from "gelf; a swelling up of the womb" or, in Gothic, "Kilthei; womb" (Webster's New World Dictionary, 3rd College Edition, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, 1988, p. 243).
Mother is defined as "that which gives birth to something, is the origin or source of something, or nurtures in the manner of a mother" (Webster's New World Dictionary, 3rd College Edition, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, 1988, p. 886).
Table of Contents
"Human Being" Defined....................................................1
Fertilization and the First Week of Life.................................1
Implantation to Six Weeks................................................4
Six to Eight Weeks.......................................................6
The Third Month..........................................................7
Preborn Pain.............................................................8
"Human Being" Defined
According to Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the world-renowned French geneticist who discovered the extra chromosome in children who have Down's syndrome, a human being is "the he/she who belongs to our species . . . . no matter the amount of kilograms and no matter the amount of differentiation of tissue."1
Fertilization and the First Week of Life
The life of every human being begins at fertilization. Numerous scientific texts and scholars have affirmed this fact.
Dr. Keith L. Moore, in Essentials of Human Embryology states:
The fertilized ovum, known as a zygote is a large diploid cell that is the beginning of a human being . . .2 and again in Before We Are Born, he states: Human development begins at fertilization when a male gamete or sperm fuses with a female gamete or ovum to form a zygote. The zygote is the first cell of a new human being.3
Dr. T. W. Sadler in Langman's Medical Embryology states: The development of a human being begins with fertilization.4 Dr. Raymond F. Gasser in Beginning of Individual Human Life from a Biological Perspective states:
[E]very human being . . . began his or her unique existence in this manner, as one cell.5
In Developmental Anatomy Leslie Arey writes:
Fertilization: the formation, maturation and meeting of a male and female sex cell are all preliminary to their actual union into a combined cell, or zygote, which definitely marks the beginning of a new individual.6
And in Human Embryology Bradley M. Patten states:
It is the penetration of the ovum by a spermatozoan and the resultant mingling of the nuclear material each brings to the union, that constitutes the culmination of the process of fertilization and marks the initiation of the life of a new individual.7
Dr. Jerome Lejeune, world-renowned geneticist, testified:
[W]hen the information carried by the sperm and by the ovum has encountered each other, then a new human being is defined because its own personal and human constitution is entirely spelled out.
If a fertilized egg is not by itself a full human being, it could never become a man, because something would have to be added to it, and we know that does not happen.8 In the United States Tennessee circuit court case of Davis v. Davis, Dr. Lejeune reported that fertilization as the beginning of the life of a human being is now an experimentally demonstrated fact in light of three findings over the last four years.9
1. The manipulation of DNA: a special DNA probe was invented by Dr. Alec Jeffreys, in England. The probe, when used to analyze a thread of DNA, would reveal a minute bar code. The probability of finding the code, only a piece of an individual's DNA, identical to another person's is less than one in a billion. It is no longer a theory that each human being is unique from fertilization onwards.
2. Using a system called PCR, one molecule from one cell can be reproduced into billions. In doing so we can see again a complete "demonstration of uniqueness" in one cell--one nucleus of an individual.
3. An understanding was obtained of why methyl (CH3) is on the DNA base cytosine. Cytosine transforms in methyl. With methylation one gene is "knocked out" but if demethylated on the next cell division it communicates information again. Lejeune describes the process by stating: [In] the expansion of the primary formula which is written in the early human being, nothing is learned but progressively a lot of things are forgotten. The first cell knew more than the 3-cell stage and the 3-cell stage knew more than the morula, than the gastula, than the primitive streak, and the primitive nervous system. In the beginning it was written not only what is the genetic message we can read in every cell, but it was written the way it should be read from one sequence to another one.
It cannot be said that the first cell is a non-differentiated cell. It must be said now the first cell is knowing how to differentiate the cell progeny.10
These and other findings are detailed in various texts and studies.11-17 (Several of these studies have shown that androgenetic-parthenogenetic chimaeras do not develop since they lack the genetic constitution of a new individual human being.)
Within a day from the moment the human father's sperm contacts the human mother's ova, a fusion of the two sets of 23 chromosomes occurs and the information of the young individual is complete in reality and existence.18 This information reveals that the individual is of the species homo sapiens and that he or she is unique, with a fully defined physical constitution including hair, eye colour, skin pigmentation, facial features and body type.19
The first cell division occurs approximately 30 hours after the sperm enters the ova--the first of many that will occur in the lifespan of the young human being.20
Implantation to Six Weeks
By the end of the first 7 days of life the young human being sinks into the nutrient wall of the uterus where she implants herself.21
At the end of two weeks a primitive streak appears; it distinguishes the different germ layers of the individual. Over the next three weeks these layers give rise to specialized tissue and organ systems.
a) The ectodermal layer gives rise to the organs and structures that maintain contact with the outer world:
i) central nervous system
ii) peripheral nervous system
iii) sensory epithelium of the ear, nose and eye
iv) skin, including hair and nails
v) pituitary, mammary and sweat glands, and tooth enamel.
b) The mesodermal layer gives rise to
i) somites (resulting in muscle tissue, cartilage and bone, and the subcutaneous tissue of the bone)
ii) vascular system (heart, arteries, veins, lymph vessels, and all blood and lymph cells)
iii)urogenital system (kidneys, gonads)
iv) spleen and suprarenal glands.
c) The endodermal layer provides the epithelial lining of the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tract and urinary bladder. It forms the parenchyma of the thyroid, parathyroids, liver and pancreas. The epithelial lining of the tympanic cavity and Eustachian tube are lined by epithelium of endodermal origin.22
Toward the end of the third week the mesodermal cells in the villus core differentiate into blood cells and small blood vessels, thus forming the villus capillary system.23
By the 18th day after fertilization, the young human being's heart is already beating its first strokes. By 21 days the heart is pumping through a closed circulatory system, blood whose type can be different from that of the mother.24
At 35 days the heart can be clearly discerned by ultrasound and the beat is double the mother's rate.25
At 4 weeks the preborn has a body comprising a head and a trunk. The arm and leg buds are evident and the heart is pressed up against the mouth.26
In the 5th week the upper part of the neural tube becomes the brain; the lower part becomes the spinal cord. The major divisions of the brain can be identified. Nerves begin as collections of neural crest cells.27
After 33 days the cerebral cortex is recognizable.28
In the 4th week the internal ear, having originated from the optic vesicle, splits off from the surface ectoderm.29
The eyes begin to develop as a pair of optic vesicles on each side of the forebrain at the end of the 4th week.30
Six to Eight Weeks
"Thirty cell divisions, or 2/3 of the 45 generations that encompass the total development of an individual's life will have taken place within 8 weeks after fertilization." 31
At 8 weeks all organs and body systems are in place and will mature over the next 14 years.32
Visible under a microscope are his unique fingerprints, never to change except in size.33
The creases on the child's hands are also visible. External genitals appear.34
At 6 weeks the eyes, nose and mouth are evident yet only at 8 weeks do the nose, chin and outer ear become prominent.35, 36
Although teeth do not appear until 6 to 24 months after birth, all 20 milk teeth buds are present at 6.5 weeks.37
The baby first moves between the 6th and 7th weeks.38
If the lips are stroked the child bends the upper body to one side and makes a quick backward movement.39
This total pattern response involves movement of most of the body.
At 8 weeks, tickling the preborn's nose will cause him to flex his head backwards away from the stimulus.40
Tapping the amniotic sac results in arm movements.41
The preborn swims in the amniotic fluid with a natural swimmer's stroke.42
At the end of the 7th week the child's central nervous system has reached a highly developed state. Dr. Harley Smyth, a neurologist at Toronto's Wellesley Hospital, stated:
[A]t 6 weeks there is the possibility of recording electrical activity from the nervous system already so highly organized that it can subserve . . . purposeful and even co-ordinated movements.43
At merely 40 days the skeleton begins to develop in cartilage.44
The movement of electrical impulses through the neural fibres and spinal column takes place between 6 and 7 weeks and at the end of the second month most parts of the adult skeleton can be identified, as well as most named nerves and muscles.45, 46
At only 40 days after fertilization electrical waves as measured by the EEG can be recorded from the baby's brain, indicating brain functioning.47, 48
The Third Month
The preborn is breathing fluid at 11 to 12 weeks.49
This breathing aids in the development of the organs of respiration. The thyroid and adrenal glands are functioning by the 9th and 10th weeks.50
By the end of the 3rd month all arteries are present, including the coronary vessels of the heart. Blood is circulating through these vessels to all body parts.51
Heart beat ranges during the fetal period from 110 to 160 beats per minute.52
At 11 weeks blood cells are produced by the liver and spleen, a job soon taken over by the bone marrow. White blood cells, important for immunity, are formed in the lymph nodes and thymus.53
At 8 to 9 weeks the eyelids have begun forming. Hair appears.54
By the 9th or 10th week the preborn child sucks her thumb, turns, somersaults, jumps, can squint to close out light, frowns, swallows, and moves her tongue.55
If you stroke a preborn's palm at 9 to 10 weeks she will make a fist. At 9 weeks she will bend her fingers round an object in the palm of her hand.56
At 11 weeks the face and all parts of the upper and lower extremities are sensitive to touch, as well as the genital and anal areas.57, 58
Sex hormones are present at 11 weeks, and by 12 weeks the child's sex is easily identifiable.59, 60
Fingernails have developed by the third month as well.61
Preborn Pain
Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain sensation are in place to a degree as early as 8 weeks.62
The first detectable brain activity in response to noxious stimuli occurs in the thalamus between the 9th and 10th weeks.63
Collins states:
By 13 and a half weeks responses are sufficiently elaborate and avoidant to warrant the definite conclusion that the fetus responds aversively, not reflexively. They evidence an integrated physiological attempt to escape noxious stimuli.64
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Cool.