50 questions

When does human life begin?

Human life begins at the precise moment when the two half-cells, the sperm of the man and the ovum of the woman, meet and form the first cell of a unique being who will never be duplicated in the history of the world. The different stages that bring about this extraordinary moment are as follows :

For the man, the pituitary gland, controlled by the brain, will begin to signal at puberty the command to manufacture 100 million sperm daily. During any act of sexual intercourse, there will be between 200 and 300 million sperm ejaculated into the body of the woman in the vagina, near the cervix. Sperm can enter the uterus if, at a precise time in the woman's cycle, the cervix is open and secreting a particular liquid, cervical mucus, which enables the sperm to swim to the ovum.

For the woman, during each of her cycles, an ovum (egg) is prepared in a follicle, as commanded by the pituitary gland. When the egg is mature, the follicle opens and releases it whereby it moves down the Fallopian tube towards the uterus. It is in position to unite with a sperm.

The first instant of life occurs at the the union of the egg and the sperm. There is not the least interruption between this moment of conception and what each one of us is today. This is why any harm of an embryo, irregardless of the maturity, is harming a human being. It is immaterial whether the brain is developed or not from the first moments (the first brain cells develop at the fourth week of pregnancy): the tiny being contains all the potential elements for his existence and development. The life of an unique human being has already begun.