Day 21, Week 3: The heart begins to beat.
Day 28, Week 4: The backbone and muscles are forming. Arms, legs, eyes and ears have begun to show. Hair has begun to sprout.
Day 30: The embryo is 10,000 times larger than the original fertilized egg. The heart is pumping increasing quantities of blood through the circulatory system.
Hmmm. The heart is beating at day 21. If it's beating, it's pumping blood. The fetus is already formed with bodily parts that require blood to function. By day 30, the heart is pumping increasing quantities of blood.
The crux of his misinformation: Leviticus directly says that the life of the flesh is in the blood. There is no blood at conception, so how can life begin at conception? At least Biblically speaking?. Well, if I take this literally (though it has nothing to do with our topic at hand), I'd say life of the flesh is already developed as early as day 21 if not before. Oh, well, another idiotic argument destroyed. Man, how people set themselves up...
11 Because the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you, that you may make atonement with it upon the altar for your souls, and the blood may be for an expiation of the soul. 12 Therefore I have said to the children of Israel: No soul of you, nor of the strangers that sojourn among you, shall eat blood. 13 Any man whosoever of the children of Israel, and of the strangers that sojourn among you, if by hunting or fowling, he take a wild beast or a bird, which is lawful to eat, let him pour out its blood, and cover it with earth. 14 For the life of all flesh is in the blood: therefore I said to the children of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any flesh at all, because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and whosoever eateth it, shall be cut off. 15 The soul that eateth that which died of itself, or has been caught by a beast, whether he be one of your own country or a stranger, shall wash his clothes and himself with water, and shall be defiled until the evening: and in this manner he shall be made clean.
Throughout this entire passage it clearly says that the life of the FLESH is in the blood; however, simply having flesh and blood DOES NOT make something a human. That is why this passage also speaks of the SOUL and the soul is a necessary component of our humanity.
Now let's look at Jeremiah 1:5:
Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.
Here it's very clear that God knew us BEFORE conception and this would indicate that our souls are certainly present at conception and the soul is where our humanity comes from, THIS is the Breath of Life that God breathed into Adam's face.
Nevertheless, Eagle Eye's argument is valid. The definition of life in Leviticus is in relation to the blood flowing through the veins and it is the blood which is said to carry the life. Therefore from a strictly biblical standpoint, I believe a legitimate argument can be made that abortion is not a "murder" in the biblical sense unless it stops a beating heart.
Now while some of us may believe that it is murder to abort before the heart begins to beat, that does not necessarily mean that we have a biblical basis for our position.
So let's knock off the invective diatribes against Eagle Eye on this point. He has a valid point. Now can anyone point to a biblical verse which provides evidence that life from a biblical standpoint begins before the heart begins to beat? If so, use that to refute Eagle Eye. If not, then let's stop with the personal invectives.
Marlowe
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec22/ch257/ch257c.html
Development of the Embryo
The next stage in development is the embryo, which develops under the lining of the uterus on one side. This stage is characterized by the formation of most internal organs and external body structures. Organ formation begins about 3 weeks after fertilization, when the embryo elongates, first suggesting a human shape. Shortly thereafter, the area that will become the brain and spinal cord (neural tube) begins to develop. The heart and major blood vessels begin to develop by about day 16 or 17. The heart begins to pump fluid through blood vessels by day 20, and the first red blood cells appear the next day. Blood vessels continue to develop in the embryo and placenta.
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So, the first blood shows up on day 21. Three weeks from conception. That means that IF you are going to permit abortion based on that criteria (that is the appearance of blood), you have to know EXACTLY when the woman conceived.
Since that is not possible, you need to factor in a safety margin of several days, a week at the most to be safe.
That means that a woman could only go for an abortion and not have it be considered murder if she does it BEFORE she even has any reason to suspect or know that she’s pregnant.
There is also the complicating factor that since the time of conception, the fertilized egg has been growing and cells have been differentiating, a sign that something is alive.
Another big failure on the part of the pro-abortion crowd to justify abortion, to be sure.