Human Embryo: Eye of the Storm

4-day old human embryo at the 16-cell stage

WHERE DO HUMAN EMBRYOS COME FROM?
• From the combining of sperm and egg (fertilization)
• From embryo splitting (fission)
• From somatic cell nuclear transfer (cloning)

It is a scientific fact that embryos are no different in their essential humanity from a fetus in the womb, a 10 year-old boy, or a 100 year-old woman. At every stage of development, human beings (whether zygote, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, infant, adolescent, or adult) retain their identity as an enduring being that grows towards its subsequent stage(s); embryos are integral beings structured for maturation along their proper time line. Despite their unfamiliar appearance, embryos are what very young humans are supposed to look like.

Isn’t it a matter of religious belief as to when human beings begin?
It is not a matter of religious belief, but a matter of biology. A human embryo is a human being, a being that is clearly and unmistakably human. It is not a zebra-type of being, a plant-type of being or some other kind of being. Each of us was once an embryo, and this affirmation does not depend on religion, belief systems, or imposing anything on anyone. It depends only on a grasp of basic biology. It is a matter of empirical observation. Once you are constituted a human being (which always occurs at fertilization or at an event that mimics fertilization like cloning), you are a new member of the human race who must be protected unconditionally. The human embryo is a being that is human, and such beings are invilable entities, because that’s what we all directly spring from at the root level.