Fetal Development

Fetal Development Ironically, it has been after the legalization of abortion in America that science has made its greatest progress in understanding the unborn child. With that understanding have come such realities as fetal surgery, which began in the '80's.

There is no question about when human life begins. 

The widely used medical textbook The Developing Human, Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th Edition, Moore, Persaud, Saunders, 1998, states at page 2 that "The intricate processes by which a baby develops from a single cell are miraculous .... This cell [the zygote] results from the union of an oocyte [egg] and sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being ...." At page 18 this theme is repeated: "Human development begins at fertilization [emphasis in original] ...."

Judge Michael J. Noonan ruled as follows in a New Jersey case based on a man's efforts to save his unborn child from being aborted: "…based upon the undisputed medical testimony by arguably the foremost authority in genetics in the world, I found that human life begins as conception; and that Roe vs. Wade permits a legal execution of that human being." (MUNICIPAL COURT OF NEW JERSEY LAW DIVISION - MORRIS COUNTY CRIMINAL ACTION DOCKET NO. C1771, ET SEQ. STATE OF NEW JERSEY V. ALEXANDER LOCE, et als. DEFENDANTS APRIL 29, 1991 HONORABLE MICHAEL J. NOONAN)

Dr. Jerome Lejeune, "Father of Modern Genetics" and discoverer of the cause of Down's Syndrome, stated, "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. Hymie Gordon, Chairman, Department of Genetics at Mayo Clinic, stated, "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception."

Sir William Liley, a key pioneer of fetal therapy, wrote a famous article in 1972, The Foetus as a Personality, in which he shows us why we have moved away from the view of the fetus as an inert, unformed passenger awaiting arrival at the destination of life, and have seen that the fetus is a splendidly functioning human, full of vigor and very much in command of the pregnancy.

Men and women of science might often approve of abortion, but that is a judgment about the value of human life, not about the scientific fact that human life exists. We present to you below some of the visual evidence that, indeed, we have a brother, a sister, in the womb.

Click here for pictures of the developing baby.

Click below to listen to the heartbeat of an unborn child.

(All ages noted here are LMP; therefore the baby's age from fertilization is actually two weeks younger than the number. These heart tones were recorded through a Doppler speaker by Dr. David M. Ramsey, III.)

Heartbeat at:

9.5 weeks: [Listen]

11.5 weeks: [Listen]

15 weeks: [Listen]

26 weeks: [Listen]

32 weeks: [Listen]

Click here for pictures of aborted babies.

Diary of an Unborn Child

Ultrasound on the Web:

One of the reasons abortion continues is that the victims are largely unseen.

Yet in our day, they have become more visible than ever before, thanks to a wide variety of imaging techniques that allow us not only to view, but also to diagnose and operate on the unborn child.

Ultrasound is one of those imaging techniques. Following are some links that will help you to understand this technique.

www.ob-ultrasound.net (a comprehensive guide to obstetric ultrasound)

Soundwave Images (Shari Richard)

For those who support the so-called "right to choose," a key question is whether or not they are willing to let the woman see what she is choosing to destroy.


Priests for Life
PO Box 236695 • Cocoa, FL 32923
Tel. 321-500-1000, Toll Free 888-735-3448 • Email: mail@priestsforlife.org