The Sanctity of Life
from Conception until Natural Death

When Does Life Begin?

On April 23-24, 1981, a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held hearings on this very question? Appearing to speak on behalf of the scientific community was a group of internationally-known geneticists and biologists who all affirmed that human life begins at conception - and they told their story with a profound absence of opposing testimony:

• Dr. Micheline M. Mathews-Roth, Harvard medical School, gave confirming testimony, supported by references from over 20 embryology and other medical textbooks that human life began at conception.
• Dr. McCarthy de Mere, medical doctor and law professor, University of Tennessee, testified: "The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception."
• Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman, Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic, added: "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception."
• "Father of Modern Genetics" Dr. Jerome Lejeune told the lawmakers: "To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion ... it is plain experimental evidence."
• Dr. Alfred Bongiovanni, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, concluded, "I am no more prepared to say that these early stages 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."
• Dr. Landrum Shettles, sometimes called the "Father of In Vitro Fertilization" notes, "Conception confers life and makes that life one of a kind."

Other quotes

Carol Everett directed four and owned two abortion clinics in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area from 1977 until 1983. In her book, Blood Money, she said:

"The product, abortion, is skillfully marketed and sold to the woman at the crisis time in her life. She buys the product, finds it defective, and wants to return it for a refund. But it's too late. Her baby's dead... [She is deceived] in two ways -- the clinic personnel and the marketers must deny the personhood of the child and the pain caused by the procedure. Every woman has two questions, 'Is it a baby?' and 'Does it hurt?' The abortionist must answer, 'NO'. He or she must lie to secure the consent of the woman and the collection of the clinic fee. The women were told that we were dealing with a 'product of conception' or a 'glob of tissue'. They were told that there would be only slight cramping, whereas, in reality, an abortion is excruciatingly painful."

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, M.D., co-founder of NARAL, and renowned abortionist who killed over 60,000 babies, performed his last of countless abortions when he watched it on ultrasound. Commenting on the ultrasound findings, he said, "We can see the child moving rather serenely in the uterus. The child senses aggression in its sanctuary. We see the child's mouth wide open in a silent scream." This shocking video with his commentary is called, "The Silent Scream." and can be seen at http://www.silentscream.org/video1.htm

The Greek physician Hippocrates in about 400 B.C., wrote the Oath that American doctors took upon graduating from medical school for generations. It contains the words: "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy."