Consider What Happens 'at Conception'
“I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion” (From the original Hippocratic Oath).
“I solemnly promise to defend and protect human life from conception to its natural end, believing that human life, transmitted by parents, is created by God and has an eternal destiny that belongs to Him” (From “Promise of the Catholic Doctor”).
Today (Jan. 27), thousands plan to be in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life. I have participated in the March for Life twice in the past. I was in awe of the attendance and the passion of those who participated.
We Catholics believe in the sanctity of life “from conception to natural death.” It is helpful to clarify what is meant by “conception” as that is the basis for Catholic teaching about abortion and contraception.
Ovulation is when an egg is released from a woman’s ovary and starts a journey down the fallopian tube to her uterus. If the egg is not fertilized by a sperm, the egg is shed in the next menstrual cycle. The egg cannot live on its own.
When sperm enter the woman’s body during intercourse, the sperm can survive and may continue to move for several days in search of an egg to fertilize, but if unsuccessful, they die. The sperm cannot live on their own.
If a sperm successfully penetrates an egg, there is a joining of the woman’s and man’s chromosomes. This is fertilization, or conception. The genetic make-up of this new cell is distinct from the mother, from the father and from any other life. A new human life has begun.
The joining of the chromosomes at conception is an instruction book for the new human life. The one cell divides into two, two into four, four into eight and so on. The new baby continues the journey down the fallopian tube to the woman’s uterus. But rather than being shed in the next menstrual cycle like an unfertilized egg, the baby implants in the lining of the uterus about a week after conception. The medical facts of how each one of us was conceived are well established in the literature. We allstarted life as a single-cell!
We ask women if they might be pregnant before administering medication or doing certain x-ray studies. Why? Because we don’t want to affect the health of the baby who may be inside the woman’s body.
Infertility specialists have the goal of successfully joining an egg and a sperm. Why? Because that is when a baby’s life begins.
For those who prescribe or use various methods of contraception to prevent pregnancy, the goal is to interfere with the fertilization of an egg by a sperm. Why? Because if the sperm fertilizes the egg, a new life has begun.
Opinions differ about the value of a life inside a woman’s body. Religious opinions differ on when the soul enters the body. Philosophers debate “personhood.” Legislators debate the legal status of that life. But medically speaking, once conception has occurred, an individual human life begins and will continue until natural or artificially induced death occurs.
The new life is not worthy of more respect than the mother. But the new life is certainly not worthy of LESS respect. Some accuse the pro-life cause of having a love affair with the unborn baby and not caring about the mother. As one of the mottos of the pro-life movement states, “We love them both.” I have that bumper sticker on my car.
Because I include OB care in my practice, I see problems with unplanned pregnancies. It is estimated that 50 percent of pregnancies are unplanned by the parents. Some babies are neglected, abused, stress an already-stressed family, and disrupt a teenager’s or young adult’s school and career plans. The list of potential problems goes on and on, and I don’t minimize them. They can be gut-wrenching to deal with. I realize there are no easy answers for many of the issues that arise with an unplanned pregnancy. But aborting these babies is not the best answer. It can’t be.
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
― Mother Teresa
Dr. Blanke is a Family Physician with St. Mary's Medical Group and a member of the Southwestern Indiana Guild of the Catholic Medical Association. He is a Medical Consultant for the Creighton Model of Natural Family Planning.
