itself, there is logically nothing to prevent society from taking the life ofsomeone said to be useless or simply an unwanted burden. This is the stance adopted by the Catholic Church,one ofthe leading campaigners against abortion. Defining the meeting ofthe sperm and the ovum.Profes sor Goodhart, of the Department of Zoology at Cam bridge, has said:"This is the point after, but not before which it becomes capable of completing its develop ment without any further stimulus from outside. Once activated the organism will carry on its development until it dies." Thus conception marks a real biological discontinuity. The single cell formed at conception contains all the information, in the form of genes, that willcause it to develop into a unique individual.The ferti lized egg(ovum) thus already contains all the instruc tions which determine the future configuration of the body and the face which will give it the"family likeness" and the future colour of the eyes, skin and hair. We have then at conception a distinct entity which is never genetically identical with eitherof its parents, buta blend of their gifts. From the time offusion ofthe sperm with the egg,the fertilised ovum contains 46 threadlike struc tures known as chromosomes. These are arranged in pairs,one memberof each pair having been derivedfrom the father and the other from the mother. It thus seems reasonable to conclude that we have a genetically distinct individual which is ofhuman origin. Quickening is the time when the mother first feels the foetus moving inside of her and is often considered the time a foetus starts living. Personhood implies both the capacity for selfconscious thought and acceptance as a member of a social community.A foetus is therefore not considered a person and should not be granted the rights of another person is another argument. Another point of dispute is viability. This is the time when a baby can sur vive outside its mother's womb, but as medical science advances,the younger the age is at which a prematurely bom child can be viewed as viable. It is possible that vi ability may be down to twelve weeks in the next century due to the developmentofthe artificial placenta. The date of viability is simply a a measure of the improvements in artificial life support systems. If stripped naked and placed at the North Pole I too would be non-viablejust as the unbom child prematurely extracted from its mother's womb becomes so. You do not however have to be a biochemist to see that the cells of a foetus carry out all the requirements for life at conception. ABORTION METHODS: A physician may carry out an abortion in a number of ways. During the first trimester the most common method is suction curettage. This in volves removing the foetus using a vacuum aspirator which is 29 times more powerful than the average home vacuum cleaner and which wrenches thefoetus outofthe womb shredding it into tiny pieces and depositing it in a glassjar.During the second trimester the most prevalent method used is dilation and evacuation or simply D and E. In this method thefoetus is dismembered in the uterus and removed from the body using a loop shaped knife which slices the baby into pieces. This method takes only a few minutes and is considered the safest. An other method involves injecting a saline solution into the amniotic solution which surroundsthefoetus.The baby breathes and swallows filling its delicate lungs with this toxic solution, while it struggles and convulses. The caustic effect of the poison bums away the top layers ofthe skin,leaving itraw and shrivelled. Its brain may begin to haemorrhage and a day or so later a live but dying baby is delivered. Asecond trimester abortion may also happen when prostaglandin dmgs are injected into the amniotic fluid which induces labour. Laminaria is another method of abortion.A catheter is inserted into the cervix and the womb immediately rejects this foreign object by inducing contractions in an attempt to drive it out.If ababy is too old to die by these or similar methods it is removed by caesarean section and smothered or drowned afterwards. Most abortions are carried out during the first 12 weeks of life. By this stage the tiny foetus practices breathing and swallowing,and its heart is beating. It can curl its tiny toes,tum flips in its watery world - and feel pain. Few people will in fact argue that the fertilized egg is living. The real question that people ask is: Living as what? Mere tissue? Or is it human? Is an acom an oak tree? Then is a foetus a person?Does it have civil rights? How ironic that in one and the same hospital doctors are fighting valiantly to save the life ofa premature baby and yet end the life ofa foetus ofthe same age!The law may allow them to kill the baby inside the womh but outside of the womb it is considered murder."If you don'tknow whethera body is alive or dead you would never bury it. I think this consideration itselfshould be enough for all of us to insist on the protection of the unbom."-Ronald Reagan Abortion-A Citizen's Guide to the Issue states that in the first 12weeks ofpregnancy,"the tiny amountoftissue in a gelatinous state is very easy to remove."Can abortion rightly be regarded as"removing a blob oftissue" or"ter minating the product ofconception"? Or are these terms simply designed to make the bitter tmth palatable and put troubled consciences to rest? That unwanted piece of tissue is a growing, thriving life, complete with its own set ofchromosomes. Like a prophetic autobiography it tells the detailed story of a unique individual in the making. Professor of Fetology, A.W. Liley, explains:"Biologically, at no stage can we subscribe to the view that the foetus is a mere append age of the mother. Genetically, mother and baby are separate individuals from conception." The cells forming the embryo are separated from the matemal embryo. In this way the embryonic body is physically quite distinct from the mother, as well as having a different genetic make-up,and cannot be con sidered as part of the mother. How does itfeel to an unbom baby to be nestled securely in the warmth ofits mother's womb and then suddenly be assaulted with deadly force? We can only imagine,for the story will never be told firsthand. The egg is fertilized and a blueprint has been made for a living human creature.Atthat momentthe sex,the fun damental physical and emotional characteristics, special gifts and talents as well as deficiencies have been set. Environments both during pregnancy and after birth ex ert only a modifying or intensifying effect,but the basic pattem ofthe person has been set. 50
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