In 1973, when the Supreme Court created out of the “emanations” of the “penumbra” of the Constitution the right to kill the unborn, the judges weren’t sure when life began.
MOREThey should have been.After all, the editors of Life magazine documented life in the womb in a 1965 cover story featuring a vivid and unforgettable photo display.
“Drama of Life Before Birth” was published eight years before the justices struggled with the concept of life’s beginnings.
The non-profit
Liberty Counsel, which regularly defends the life of the unborn in court, pointed out the feature was “an unprecedented photographic feat for the 1960s” that documented “the stages of growth of an unborn baby from fertilization to 28 weeks.”
In the section detailing fertilization, the article states, “The birth of a human life really occurs at the moment the mother’s egg cell is fertilized by one of the father’s sperm cells.”
Science repeatedly has affirmed that statement.“At fertilization, the human being emerges as a whole, genetically distinct, individuated zygotic living human organism, a member of the species Homo sapiens, needing only the proper environment in order to grow and develop.
The difference between the individual in its adult stage and in its zygotic stage is one of form, not nature.”
(Credit: Life Magazine photo by Lennart Nilsson)