On the Beginning of Human Life
When does a new individual human life begin? Thinking about this question, and the integration of philosophy and science required to resolve it, led me to read Norman Ford's book, When Did 1 Begin? Conception of the Human Individual in History, Philosophy and Science. I Nestled within Ford's book is a remarkable series of scientific statements so potentially fruitful in answering the question of the origin of human life that I feel compelled to share my reading of them. We must follow Ford's insight and prepare a place of understanding by also considering the philosophical and historical dimensions of the question and its answers. Science tells us that the materials for a new being are present as the sperm enters the outer membranes of the ovum and that the new complex of chromosomes exists twenty to twenty-four hours later at syngamy. This concludes fertilization and marks the beginning ofthe zygote. There is then cell cleavage under the instruction of the mother's messenger RNA. This mRNA was within the ovum prior to fertilization. Recent research also tells us that the DNA in one of the daughter cells "switches on" when the zygote is between the two to four