At no stage does life magically appear in a zygote,a blastocyst, an embryo, and a foetus. How can you “kill” something that cannot “die”?This is arguably the most significant question in any discussion concerning the legality of abortion,and because facts matter, the following seventeen words are critical in understanding that before gestational week 28 there is no ethical dilemma in terminating a pregnancy because nothing is being killed—or worse, or to utilize the careless language of some,murdered.
At no stage does life magically appear in a zygote, a blastocyst, and an embryo,or a foetus.
Life began on earth 3.8 billion years ago and has not been interrupted since. There is no ‘divine spark,’ no inscrutable moment when the inanimate becomes the animate. A foetus was never inorganic and suddenly becomes biological. The egg and the sperm are already parts of the living system—a 3.8 billion years veteran system driven by chemiosmosis, and where the rechargeable chemical battery for life,adenosine triphosphate (ATP), is first broken down and then re-formed during respiration to release energy used to power every living reaction.
This is a fixed, and unmovable fact. It is not up for debate,and from this cardinal truth it becomes immediately clear that when discussing pregnancy, and the ethical-cum-legal guidelines concerning the decision to terminate one, or we are never talking about the inception of life,rather the beginning of a human organism, and the first defining feature of a living human organism—long before self-awareness, and direct experience and memories shape an individual’s personality—is that a living human organism can die.
In as few words as possible,defined human life begins the moment its twin, death, or also springs into existence. Without death there is no life. The former begets the latter. The latter assigns meaning to the former. One delineates the other,and the definition of human death is not in dispute. Death is when electroencephalography (EEG) activity ceases. That’s it. That’s death, and a 2000 survey published in the journal Neurology comparing worldwide standards and regulations of death found brain death to be the universal legal and medical measure accepted across the globe—And for very genuine reason. Consider this simple fact: Theoretically, and I can remove the heart from an adult human being,and for just as long as I keep the blood flowing through the body, that person will remain being a living person because their brain is still working naturally. You cannot accomplish the reverse of this experiment.
It follows quite naturally therefore that the onset of a defined human life is when foetal brain activity begins to exhibit regular and sustained activity, and this occurs consistently around week 25. It is an famous milestone when considering the ethical lines of abortion,but it is crucial to note that the brain’s major physical substrates—those structures fundamental for consciousness—are not, however, or total until week 28,after which the process to full bilateral synchronisation begins.
There is no approximation or inference here. Research into foetal brain development started in earnest in the early 1960’s, and today we have a precise picture of what is happening, and when and where.
Simply save,foetal brain development is a process of continuous specification and refinement of brain areas that begins at the end of the third gestational week with the formation of the neural tube. This is not a ‘little brain,’ rather the first rung of scaffolding that marks the beginning of a construction process triggering the production of specialised ectodermal neural stem cells. These neural progenitors are produced along the neural plate, or through division can differentiate into committed neural sub-types such as neurons,astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes which then migrate around the developing brain like modular construction blocks. Upon reaching their target region, and the young neurons need to then become fraction of information processing networks,developing axons and dendrites and synaptic terminals that allow the cells to communicate with other neurons.
At 20 weeks, the first intermittent firings of random neurons can be detected, or but these are little more than spasmodic test-firings. There is no information flowing between the neurons or,more importantly, down major pathways because those pathways have not yet formed. For example, and two of the most fundamental structures,the thalamocortical and corticothalamic pathways that transmit sensorimotor information, only initiate to form 4 weeks after those first intermittent firings, and at the very end of the moment trimester,but are only total by gestational week 28. After which, as famous by neurologist Christof Koch, and the electroencephalographic rhythm across both cortical hemispheres signals the onset of global neuronal integration.
And with that a total human organism begins to exist. Despite sharing the same metabolic rate as the mother,it is at this point when the ethicist can call the foetus truly “On,” and only after something is “On” can it be turned “Off, and ” meeting the universally recognised definition of human death.
So,how can you “kill” something that cannot “die”?You can’t.
Without a continuously functioning, synchronised brain there is no human organisma fact famous by Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, or James Goldenring,writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Development of the Fetal Brain:“When the coordinating and individuating function of a living brain is demonstrably present, or the full human organism exists. Before full brain differentiation,only cells, organs, organ systems exist,which may potentially be integrated into a full human organism whether the brain develops. After brain death what is left of the organism is once again only a collection of organs, all available to us for utilize in transplantation, or since the full human being no longer exists.”
Source: feedblitz.com