What Do the Experts Say?

A new individual is created when the elements of the potent sperm merge with those of the fertile ovum, or egg. Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, 1944

The birth of a human life really begins at the moment the mother's egg cell is fertilized by one of the father's sperm cells. "The Drama of Life Before Birth", LIFE Magazine, April 30, 1966

..the fetus is not a passive, dependent, nerveless, fragile vegetable, as tradition has held, but a young human being, dynamic, plastic, resilient and in very large measure in charge of his environment and destiny. "Abortion and Social Justice", A. W. Liley (the father of modern fetology), Sheed and Ward, 1972

An abortion requires an operation. It kills the life of the baby after it has begun. Planned Parenthood pamphlet, 1963 (Planned Parenthood has since changed their definition and is now the largest abortion provider in the United States)

The fact seems to me elementary. Each life biologically begins at conception...I shall be brief: the fetus is alive, it is not dead. It is human and not a cat, rat, horse, or elephant. Biologically, all species are identified by their genetic composition and the fetus is human from conception. In brief, it is a biological human being. "Abortion is not Birth Control", Dr. A. E. Hellegers, M.D., a speech to the U.N. World Population Conference, August 27, 1974

Life has a very long history, but each of us has a unique beginning, the moment of conception. Dr. Jerome LeJune, (Dr. LeJune is the French physician who testified in the "frozen human embryo" case in Tennessee) A Symphony of the Preborn Child, Part II, November 1989

This is true of the human being, for instance, who begins life as a fertilized ovum ... I. Asimov, The Genetic Code 20 (1962).

The zygote is the starting cell of the new organism. J. Greenhill & E. Fiedman, Biological Principles and Modern Practice of Obstetrics 23 (1974).

A new individual is initiated by the union of two gametes - a male gamete, or spermatozoon, and a female gamete, or mature ovum. S. Luria, Thirty-Six Lectures in Biology (1975).

Fertilization is significant in that new life is created, specifically the cardinal features of fertilization are that (1) the diploid number of chromosomes [46] is reconstituted and (2) the sex of the conceptus is designated chromosomally. J. Thomas, Introduction to Human Embryology 52 (1968).

The formation, maturation and meeting of a male and female sex cell are all preliminary to their actual union into a combined cell, or zygote, which definately marks the beginning of a new individual. L. Arey, Developmental Anatomy 55 (7th ed. 1974).