A celebrated New York pediatric neurosurgeon said the science is “obvious” that human life begins at conception.
In a column at Evolution News, Dr. Michael R. Egnor, a professor of neurosurgery and pediatrics at State University of New York, Stony Brook, and award-winning brain surgeon, expressed frustration that some scientists still mislead people about when life begins.
“They have an ideology to sell, and if truth gets in the way, so much the worse for truth,” Egnor wrote.
The problem is their pro-abortion beliefs are more important than the truth, he said, pointing to a recent blog post by P. Z. Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota Morris. A proud pro-abortion “progressive,” Myers claimed it is “absurd” to say that life begins at conception.
“Can I just say that the claim that ‘life begins at conception’ is sufficiently absurd in all of its particulars that anyone who says it needs to be laughed off the stage?” Myers wrote. “Life doesn’t ‘begin’ at conception … it’s about when human personhood begins, which is a much fuzzier and poorly delimited thing altogether. Except we know it doesn’t happen at conception.”
But Egnor said the biology is clear and has been since the early 19th century.
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“Obviously, life begins at conception,” he responded. “With the fusion of the sperm and the egg, a new human life begins. This is rudimentary biology — it has been settled science since the early 19th century. From a biological standpoint, it can’t be denied.”
Egnor continued:
“After all, if life begins sometime after conception (e.g., at viability, or sentience, or whatever), then biologists would face the problem of classifying the fetus prior to life. A fetus isn’t part of the mother, because it has different DNA (and half the time, different sex) and women don’t reproduce by budding — i.e., they don’t just bud off parts of their bodies like earthworms.”
To deny that a unique, living human being comes into existence at conception is like denying that the heart pumps blood, Egnor said. And Myers refuses to accept that life begins at conception, not because of any scientific evidence but because of his pro-abortion ideology, he continued.
“Abortion proponents must deny the personhood of these very young human beings in order to justify abortion,” Egnor said. “But denying the personhood of any human being is morally abhorrent, so pro-abortion fanatics like Myers lie about the biology of early human life to paint a pretty face on homicide of human beings in the womb.”
Scientists and doctors, biology and medical textbooks confirm that human life begins at conception. A recent survey of more than 5,500 biologists across the world found 96 percent said it is “correct” that “a human’s life begins at fertilization.”
In the past 50 years, more than 63 million unborn babies have been aborted in the United States. According to a new report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, nearly all abortions (95.7 percent) are for elective reasons.
