When Does Life Begin?

I believe that life begins at conception! "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made . . . My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:13-16)

Science does not disagree with this fact. “Based on universally accepted scientific criteria, a new cell, the human zygote, comes into existence at the moment of sperm-egg fusion, an event that occurs in less than a second. Upon formation, the zygote immediately initiates a complex sequence of events that establish the molecular conditions required for continued embryonic development. The behavior of the zygote is radically unlike that of either sperm or egg separately and is characteristic of a human organism. Thus, the scientific evidence supports the conclusion that a zygote is a human organism and that the life of a new human being commences at a scientifically well defined “moment of conception.” This conclusion is objective, consistent with the factual evidence, and independent of any specific ethical, moral, political, or religious view of human life or of human embryos.” (When Does Human Life Begin? A Scientific Perspective. Maureen L. Condic, PhD. ; Senior Fellow; Westchester Institute for Ethics & the Human Person; Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Salt Lake City, Utah. http://www.westchesterinstitute.net/images/wi_whitepaper_life_print.pdf)

"I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception. I submit that human life is present throughout this entire sequence from conception to adulthood and any interruption at any point throughout this time constitutes a termination of human life." - Dr. Alfred M. Bongioanni, professor of obstetrics, University of Pennsylvania

"It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception." Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, Harvard University Medical School

"By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception." Professor Hymie Gordon, Mayo Clinic

"The beginning of a single human life is from a biological point of view a simple and straightforward matter—the beginning is conception." Dr. Watson A. Bowes, University of Colorado Medical School

"I oppose abortion. I do so, first, because I accept what is biologically manifest—that human life commences at the time of conception—and, second, because I believe it is wrong to take innocent human life under any circumstances." Dr. Landrum Shettles, pioneer in sperm biology, fertility and sterility, discoverer of male- and female-producing sperm

(Quotations taken from: When Does Human Life Begin?: The Answer of Science. Randy Alcorn. Eternal Perspective Ministries, Sandy, OR. http://www.epm.org/)