MORAL CONCERNS
From the Archives
Scientists Attest To Life Beginning At Conception
Excerpted from Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Min.
I
n 1981, a United States Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee invited experts to testify
on the question of when life begins. All
of the quotes from the following experts
come directly from the official government
record of their testimony. 1
Dr. Alfred Bongioanni, Prof. of Pediatrics
and Obstetrics, Univ. of Pennsylvania
"I have learned from my earliest
medical education that human life
begins at the time of conception...I
submit that human life is present
throughout this entire sequence from
conception to adulthood and that any
interruption at any point throughout
this time constitutes a termination of
human life...I am no more prepared
to say that these early stages [of
development in the womb] represent
an incomplete human being than I
would be to say that the child prior to
the dramatic effects of puberty...is not
a human being. This is human life at
every stage."
Dr. Jerome LeJeune, Prof. of Genetics,
Univ. of Descartes, Paris Dr. Watson A. Bowes, Univ. of Colorado
Medical School
"After fertilization has taken place
a new human being has come into
being... He stated that this "is no
longer a matter of taste or opinion,"
and "not a metaphysical contention, it
is plain experimental evidence." He
added, "Each individual has a very
neat beginning at conception." "The beginning of a single human life
is, from a biological point of view,
a simple and straightforward matter
— the beginning is conception. This
straightforward biological fact should
not be distorted to serve sociological,
political, or economic goals."
Professor Hymie Gordon, Mayo Clinic
"By all the criteria of modern
molecular biology, life is present from
the moment of conception."
Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth,
Harvard Univ. Medical School
"It is incorrect to say that biological
data cannot be decisive...It is
scientifically correct to say that
an individual human life begins at
conception...Our laws, one function
of which is to help preserve the lives
of our people, should be based on
accurate scientific data."
A prominent physician pointed out that, at
the Senate hearings,
"Pro-abortionists, though invited to
do so, failed to produce even a single
expert witness who would specifically
testify that life begins at any point
other than conception or implantation.
Only one witness said that no one can
tell when life begins." 2
1 Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Sen.
Judiciary Comm. S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session 1981
2 Landrum Shettles and David Rorvik, Rites of Life:The
Scientific Evidence of Life Before Birth(Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan Pub., 1983), 113
Randy Alcorn
Eternal Perspective Ministries
39085 Pioneer Blvd, Ste 206
Sandy, OR 97055
GOD'S WORD TELLS US WHEN LIFE BEGINS
Psalm 139:13-16
"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my
mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in
secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw
my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of
them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were
none of them."
Isaiah 44:2a
"Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the
womb..."
Let us be faithful to the God Who created us and treat life
as sacred from conception to natural death. May God grant
us His grace as we endeavor to share His love and truth with
those whose eyes are blinded.
Jeremiah 1:5a
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you..."
MESSENGER
Cynthia Sutlive
For the Right to Life Committee
SUMMER 2017
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