The miracle of life

A NEW INDIVIDUAL RECEIVES 23 CHROMOSOMES FROM EACH PARENT. HE OR SHE IS TRYLY UNIQUE INDIVIDUAL HUMAN BEING, NEVER TO BE REPEATED. ONCE FERTILIZATION HAS TAKEN PLACE, OVUM AND SPERM NO LONGER EXIST. A NEW PERSON HAS BEEN CREATED WHO AT THIS STAGE IS TINY LIVING ORGANISM WEIGHING ONLY 15 TEN-MILLIONTHS OF GRAM.

SO WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE BEGIN?
When does the tiny human organism developing inside the mother actually become a human being? When is it a real person, an individual with all the basic rights that all human beings have- particularly the right to life?

AT THE MOMENT OF CONCEPTION/FERTILIZATION
ALL the necessary elements that create a new human being are present. When the chromosomes of the father and mother unite, they form an absolutely unique, never-to-be duplicated human person. At that moment, life begins. From that matter on, any further formation of the person is purely a matter of development growth and maturation. From the moment of conception, the child grows. And keeps growing until life ends.

AT THREE WEEKS
THE tiny human being only one-tenth of an inch long already has the beginnings of eyes, spinal cord, nervous system, lungs, stomach, intestines. The primitive heart, which began beating about 18 days, now pumps more confidently. All this before the mother may even aware of this new life within her.

BY SIX AND ONE-HALF WEEKS
THE child is making body movements, a full 12 weeks before the mother may notice such stirrings.

AT 8 WEEKS
THE developing child can make a tiny fist, get hiccups, and suck a thumb, wake and sleep. All bodily systems are working.

AT 11 WEEKS
While the placenta continues to supply food and oxygen, the child can make complex facial expressions and even smile. ALL bodily systems are becoming more efficient.

AT 16 WEEKS
Only 5 ½ inches long, the child can use hands to grasp can swim and turn somersaults.

THE 18 WEEK OLD CHILD
IS active and energetic, flexes muscles, punches and kicks. Now the mother feels the child’s movements. Before modern science, some said that at this time—the time of “quickening” –life begins. But the child’s development actually began at conception, 18 weeks earlier.

WHILE GROWING WITHIN THE MOTHER
THE child develops separately from her, with a separate, individual blood supply. The child’s life is not the mother’s life, but a separate individual life.

And the child has as much right to this life as the mother has her. Or as any other human beings of any age have to theirs.

THE RIGHT TO LIVE
Is the most fundamental right of every human person. To violate this right, to destroy a life, to kill a human being at any age or stage of development – whether in the womb or out of the womb – is a crime against GOD and humanity.

Three-fourths of mankind lives in countries that have given up the historic protection of unborn babies. Other nations are being pressured to accept abortions. Given low birthrates, the whole West is already virtually dying out. The total number of abortions by surgery, Pill IUD or other destructive interference – can only be imagined. The toll is enormous. Abortion is the GREATEST war of all time. Never in the history of mankind has there been so much violent death in the world. Euthanasia, another growing threat to innocent life, is steadily increasing the death toll.



Content provided by ©2001 HLI.