 Eleven weeks from conception, used by permission of Life Issues Institute. |
Some people say human life begins at conception. Others insist the human fetus becomes a person at birth, or even at some time after birth.
Still others point to a time in the middle, the twentieth week of gestation, because at that point a baby is viable - can live outside the womb.
WHO IS RIGHT? The question is important when thinking about abortion.
Five signs of life in the womb:
1. Heartbeat
- Modern technology can detect a baby's heartbeat eighteen days after conception.
- That is only four days after most women miss a period and begin to suspect they are pregnant.
- Most abortions are not performed until the eighth week (56 days) of a pregnancy, or a little later.
2. Brain waves
- Six weeks after conception signals from the fetal brain can be detected.
- Dream patterns have been discovered around the eighth or ninth week.
- Perhaps more advanced technology will someday show us heartbeats and brain waves at even earlier stages in the unborn child's life.
3. Independent movement
- At about the sixth week, the baby in the womb can move spontaneously: Kicking, swimming, jumping and stretching.
- This is long before the mother will feel any sensations of movement.
4. Senses
- A baby in the womb is capable of responding to touch and sound by about the eighth or tenth week.
- A child at that age will move away from painful stimuli, the most painful of which would be the abortionist's instrument.
5. Breathing
- By about the fourteenth week, a baby's lungs are functioning and he or she will practice breathing.
- Vocal cords are formed by the thirteenth week, and were it not for a lack of air, the baby could be heard to cry!
From the very beginning, once a human egg is fertilized by sperm, there exists a new human being. All information about the child's sex, hair color, eye color, and much more is already present from the beginning.
What does an abortion do?
Abortion ends a human life.
Seven weeks from conception, used by permission of Life Issues Institute. |
Some say that an abortion is nothing more than the "termination of a pregnancy;" that what is aborted is only a "blob of tissue" or a "mass of cells." An early abortion will produce what appears to be a "blob of tissue," but what would you expect the shredded remains of a tiny unborn baby to look like?
Most abortions are performed after the eighth week of pregnancy which is beyond the point when the child exhibits many signs of life, but before the time when cartilage has given way to real bone (by the end of the sixth month). Later abortions produce fully recognizable body parts or even whole, fully formed babies. Yet, even pills that cause very early abortions end a human life.
If you are experiencing a problem pregnancy, seek help from someone who will affirm the value of your unborn child's life.
There are alternatives to abortion.
