Life begins at conception

"After fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being...[this] is no longer a matter of taste or opinion, it is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence...." -
Dr Jerome LeJeune, Professor of Genetics at the University of Descartes, Paris, discoverer of the chromosome pattern of Down's Syndrome, and Nobel Prize Winner

Sperm penetrates ovum

 

"Development begins at fertilization when a sperm fuses with an ovum to form a zygote; this cell is the beginning of a new human being."
Moore, Keith L., The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, page 12, W.B. Saunders Co.,

Just before fusion

 
"In that fraction of a second when the chromosomes form pairs, the sex of the new child will be determined, hereditary characteristics received from each parent will be set, and a new life will have begun."
Kaluger, G., and Kaluger, M., Human Development: The Span of Life, page 28-29, The C.V. Mosby Co.

Moment of fusion

 
"A new individual is created when the elements of a potent sperm merge with those of a fertile ovum."
Encyclopedia Britannica, "Pregnancy," page 968, 15th Edition, Chicago 1974

First cell division

 

"Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception."
Prof Micheline Matthews-Roth Harvard University Medical School

First cell division

"The beginning of a single human life is from a biological point of view a simple and straightforward matter - the beginning is conception"
Dr Landrum Shettles, discoverer of male and female producing sperm

Zygote is securely anchored and now consists of thousands of cells

 

"By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception"
Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic

Zygote secretes a mucus to proclaim his / her presence

 

"The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception"
Dr. McCarthy de Mere, a medical doctor and Law Professor at the University of Tennessee

 

LINKS

• Scientist : Human life beings at conception, fertilisation