The occupants of a hospital delivery room fall silent in awe as a newborn infant takes its first breath, and the baby's tiny cry pierces the silence as if to release all the tension and stress that filled the room only moments before.  The miracle of birth is one that is revered and celebrated world-wide because it marks the first moments a new life is introduced to the world; however, the new life begins long before the baby takes his/her first breath.  Human life begins at fertilization, which marks the point at which a brand new, unique individual comes into the world -- an organism which contains the same life and same genetic code it will carry for as long as it exists.  As such, the unborn should be granted the same legal rights as any other minor citizen in the United States of America given they would otherwise be granted those rights upon their birth.

The process of fertilization takes place when a sperm, the male gamete, fuses with an egg, the female gamete.  Sex gametes, the sperm and egg, are different from any other cell type in the human body.  With only 23 chromosomes, they contain only half the number of chromosomes in a normal human cell, and these gametes are called haploid cells.  The cell formed upon fertilization is called a diploid cell since it contains a full 46 chromosomes, which is the number of chromosomes in every cell of the human body.  In Nucleus Medical Media's video "Fertilization (Conception)", it is explained that it takes only a few minutes after a sperm contacts the egg for the membranes of the sperm and egg to fuse creating a "new sing cell, the zygote, [which] is the beginning of a new human being" (Nucleus Medical Media).  Once the plasma membranes of the gametes combine, the nuclei, the membranes that contain the chromosomes, of each gamete are known as the pronuclei.  The pronuclei form together to create a single nucleus within the zygote, and the entire genetic code for that human is set in stone.  It is at that point that the gender, hair color, eye color, height, body type, skin color, etc. is determined for that human being, and his/her genetic code is completely unique from any other genetic code that has ever existed.  Most importantly, those 46 chromosomes determine the zygote to be a human zygote.  While it may not appear human, and it may not have arms and legs or a head yet, it is written in the genetic code of that organism that it is, without a doubt, a human being.

While the zygote's DNA encodes for the organism to be a human, how do we know the new cell is, in fact, a new organism rather than an extension of the previous existing sperm and egg?  In her article "When Does Human Life Begin?  The Scientific Evidence and Terminology Revisited," Maureen L. Condic explains science defines the point at which a new, unique cell is formed by its composition and behavior, and these "two criteria are used universally in the field of biology to distinguish when new cell types are produced, either in the laboratory or during embryonic development" (Condic).  She continues to illustrate that while the zygote has characteristics of both gametes, its molecular composition is unique.  It is neither completely sperm nor completely egg.  The cell's composition in relation to the sperm and egg is comparable to the greater picture of how a child's composition relates to his parents'.  The child has characteristics from each parent, and every characteristic that child possesses came from one parent or the other and no one else, but the child is still a separate entity from his parents.  For another example, consider the baking of a cake.  There are plenty of ingredients that go into making a cake, and the cake is made up entirely of those ingredients alone.  However, that does not make the cake an egg or flour or sugar.  While it contains each of these ingredients, it is a separate food.  Likewise, while the zygote is made up of the egg and the sperm and contains characteristics of each, it is its own, separate organism with a unique molecular composition.  The second characteristic science uses to define when a new cell has been formed is cell behavior.  Upon formation, "the cell produced by sperm-egg fusion rapidly enters into a new pattern of cell behavior that is also distinct from either gamete" (Condic).  The zygote initiates cell division and undergoes development all on its own without the guidance of the gametes or any other cells that are not a part of its own organism.  All parts of the zygote work together to "preserve life, health, and continued development" (Condic), which, in conjunction with its unique composition, proves the zygote to be a new, independent cell.

Since she attempts to write from an objective perspective, leaving culture, religion, and philosophy out of the picture and focusing solely on science, she is able to approach the topic from a fairly unbiased perspective.  Condic's article goes into specific detail on the science of the early development of the embryo and gives thorough explanations on why human life begins at fertilization.  She wrote an earlier article "When Does Human Life Begin?" but chose to update the article in 2014 to make sure it was up to date with modern scientific findings.  The sources she cites in her article are mainly scientific or medical sources such as journals and other scientists.  Condic herself is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah, School of Medicine.  She has a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.  She is currently working on research regarding embryonic neurons.  Her classes consist of graduate students and medical students and focus mainly on embryonic development.  

An argument does exist that the zygote's development is actually controlled by the egg rather than directed on its own accord.  This theory comes from the fact that an egg, under proper conditions, has the ability to undergo the early stages of development on its own without being fertilized.  The egg, however, does not have the ability to do so without unnatural human stimulation, such as with the use of electricity.  It does not have the ability to do so naturally without being fertilized by the sperm.  Scientists have the ability to create a multitude of scenarios in a lab that do not occur naturally, and such abilities to manipulate an egg by artificial stimulation does not provide enough solid evidence that the egg could be in control of the early development of a zygote because the scenarios in the lab are artificial and would never occur naturally within a woman's womb.  Additionally, the zygote's distinctly different composition and behavior from the egg shows the zygote is a new and separate cell.  When the membranes of the sperm and egg fuse, it "causes changes in the egg membrane" (Nucleus Medical Media).  Also, the "zygote contains 23 single chromosomes ... from the sperm, and 23 single chromosomes from the egg, thereby creating the correct number of 46 chromosomes for all body cells" ("Mitosis and Meiosis").  When the pronuclei of the sperm and egg fuse, it creates a single nucleus that contains those 46 chromosomes and controls the cell from that point on.  The zygote is clearly distinct in composition and behavior from the egg, which no longer exists after fertilization as it morphs with the sperm to create a new life.  Nucleus Medical Media produced a video, "Fertilization (Conception" that describes how an egg is fertilized by a sperm.  Nucleus Medical Media is an "award-winning creator of medical illustrations, medical animations, and interactive multimedia both in the U.S. and worldwide" ("Meet Our Team").  They employ "graduate-degreed medical animators, illustrators, and medical writers ... " and their "staff has been educated at renowned and prestigious institutions such as Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, The Medical College of Georgia, the University of Toronto, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and the Rochester Institute of Technology" ("Meet Our Team").  The purpose of their video "Fertilization (Conception)" is to educate on the science behind the fertilization of a human egg, so they do not have a bias regarding the topic of abortion.

While science supports the idea of the zygote formed at fertilization being a genetically human and a separate life from the egg, there are some who don't believe it should be treated as a human life in spite of its genetic make-up.  Jodi Jacobson, author of "Life Begins at Conception. That's Not the Point" agrees that life begins at fertilization, but she does not believe personhood begins at fertilization.  She believes it should be the choice of the woman to decide whether or not to abort her baby because she believes the baby is a part of the woman's body and the woman should be able to decide what she does with her own body.  In her article, she argues that not to allow abortion would be to give the unborn baby "rights that trump those of the woman upon whose body it depends" ("Life Begins at Conception.  That's Not the Point").  She points out that:

[pregnancy] begins at implantation. Human life has to begin with conception, but conception is not the same thing as pregnancy, the latter of which reason, science, and medical evidence agree begins when a fertilized egg successfully implants in the uterus and develops into a healthy embryo. Fertilized eggs take between six to 12 days to implant in the uterine lining. There simply is no pregnancy until this happens, which is why any method that prevents fertilization or implantation cannot cause an abortion.  ("Life Begins at Conception.  That's Not the Point")

Pregnancy does begins at implantation, which is when the "[fertilized] egg, now known as an embryo, develops in the fallopian tube for the first three days, then travels down into the uterus" ("Fertilization and Implantation").  While fertilization occurs within the first 24 hours succeeding intercourse, actual pregnancy takes a few days.  This point, however, is irrelevant.  It is not the aim of the pro-life movement to make it illegal to abort a child because the mother is pregnant.  The purpose of making abortion illegal has nothing to do with how pregnant the mother is and everything to do with how alive the unborn child is.  The zygote created upon fertilization is genetically human, is alive, and its own, unique individual.  It is this tiny human life that pro-life advocates work fervidly to protect, respect, and celebrate.

Jacobson also points out that she specifically believes abortion is not murder.  The Merriam Webster dictionary defines murder as "the crime of deliberately killing a person" ("Murder").  By this definition, abortion cannot be considered murder because it is not a crime.  However, because the unborn child, at any stage after conception, is in fact a human being according to the science surrounding life and fertilization, for any human to intentionally end the life of the unborn child at any point would be to kill the unborn child.  It is for this reason the pro-life movement aims to commit to law that it is unlawful to kill the unborn child just as it would be to kill a child who has already been born.  As Frederica Mathewes-Green, former Feminists for Life Communications Vice President and former pro-choice advocate, expresses, "Even if there were any doubt that the unborn were a person, if I had seen someone doing this to a kitten I would have been horrified. The feminism that hoped to create a new, just society had embraced as essential an act of injustice" (Mathewes-Green).

One common held belief among pro-choice supporters, including Jacobson, is that the woman should have the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.  This argument is primarily fueled by the feminist movement.  While explaining the pro-choice argument, Dr. Claire Pomeroy states "gaining the access to safe and legal abortions finally allowed a woman to have the basic right of controlling her own body" (Pomeroy).  The flaw in this argument, however, is that it is assuming the unborn child is a part of the woman's body when this is simply not the case.  It makes perfect sense that a woman should have the right to do as she pleases with her own body, but the unborn child is not a part of the woman's body.  Within a human body, all of the cells in that human being contain the same genetic code, and if "the unborn child were actually a part of the mother's body, the unborn's cells would have the same genetic code as the cells of the mother ...  Every cell of the unborn's body is genetically distinct from every cell in the mother's body" ("Part of the Mother's Body?").  23 of the chromosomes in every cell of the unborn child actually came from the father, so the child would have to be just as much a part of the father's body as it is the mother's body, genetically speaking.  The unborn baby in many cases also has a different blood type than the mother.  If a blood type other than a person's inherent blood type is introduced into the bloodstream of that person, the immune system recognizes the blood type as a foreign substance and fights against it as it would a disease, resulting in the person's body fighting against itself and ultimately killing itself from within.  If the unborn child was a part of the woman's body, any case in which the blood type of the fetus was different than its mother's blood type would result in both the death of the fetus and the mother.  In fact, in order for the baby to survive in the mother's womb, a chemical is secreted to weaken the immune system within the uterus so the mother's body won't recognize the baby as a foreign entity and attack it from within.  Similar to blood type is the baby's gender.  About half of all pregnancies involve a male fetus, so the gender of the unborn child isn't the same as the mother's, also supporting that the child is a separate individual from the mother.  ("Part of the Mother's Body?")  Lastly, "It is illegal to execute a pregnant woman on death row because the fetus living inside her is a distinct human being who cannot be executed for the crimes of the mother" ("Part of the Mother's Body?").  The law provides special protections for pregnant women because of the growing baby inside her, but it does not recognize the baby as a human being with legal rights.  In doing so, the law contradicts itself.  Just as born children are subject to their mother's dangerous habits, including alcohol and drugs, unborn children are even more directly affected.  Alabama's Chemical Endangerment Statute states, "a 'person [who] commits the crime of chemical endangerment' by 'knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally caus[ing] or permit[ing] a child to be exposed to, to ingest or inhale, or to have contact with a controlled substance, chemical substance, or drug paraphernalia,' [has committed] a felony" (Chapman).  Other states across the nation hold similar laws.  In one particular case, mother Sarah Janie Hicks used cocaine while pregnant, and upon birth, her child was found to have cocaine in his system.  The Alabama Supreme Court ruled she was in violation of their Chemical Endangerment Statute.  The unborn baby was recognized as an entity that can be harmed and should be protected.  Not only are the lives of unborn babies endangered because of abortions, but also because of instances such as the Alabama case.  These ideas support the argument that unborn children are human beings who should be provided with legal rights.

Every human life begins at fertilization when one male gamete and one female gamete fuse together to create a brand new, single cell which contains all the fundamental blueprints for that human's existence.  Without a doubt, that single cell is completely human and should be treated as such by being protected under the American Constitution.  In the United States of America, we have granted equal rights to every race and skin color, to every gender, and to every sexuality, and yet we have not given equal rights to our own unborn children.  The story of the unborn "is the story of all of us" (Nucleus Medical Media).  Regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, political affiliation, religion, and everything else that might divide us as a people, we are all united in the fact that each of us was once nothing more than a single cell that grew and developed into the person we are today.  We are the lucky ones.  It is in remembrance of those who were not so fortunate and in a light of hope for those to come that I urge every American to fight for the right to life for the unborn.  Every individual can make a difference by spreading the word and attending annual Right to Life marches or simply by encouraging our sisters and our friends to turn to other solutions such as adoption rather than abortion in the case of an unwanted pregnancy.  American citizens have an incredible opportunity and responsibility to speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.  We have done it before, and we can do it again.  

