Opinion: Diminishing the importance of conception in creating human life is unscientific

To the editor: Taking issue with a recent statement of the mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to “serve and protect Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception,” Dr. Richard Paulson advocates that fact, not faith, determine the starting point of human life. (“Why the Department of Health and Human Services should stop saying life begins at conception,” Opinion, Oct. 26)

It is Paulson who needs this reminder.

Scientists worldwide, Paulson included, concede that a fertilized human egg “gives rise to a human being.” To be sure, Paulson tosses in the adjective “potential,” and further asserts that the sperm and egg were already alive. These qualifications, however, neither add nor subtract from the facts of life.

A zygote contains 23 pairs of fused chromosomes from father and mother that had not been previously matched prior to conception. True, for a successful birth, implantation still must follow, but the fact that it is not a sure thing in nature hardly authorizes Paulson’s suspension of reality.

Paulson seems less concerned about objective science that with preserving his lucrative infertility practice and the program he directs at USC. As a USC law alumnus, I am disappointed to see the university’s medical school embrace alternative realities.

Douglas W. Kmiec, Malibu

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To the editor: For much of history billions of women had one option in life: to be a baby factory. Many antiabortion activists prefer this role for women, as commanded by a personal God.

However, it is estimated that up to 50% of all fertilizations spontaneously abort. Over human history, there have been billions of human births; there have also been billions of spontaneous abortions. God is either the most prolific abortionist of all time, or it’s a part of his plan.

Demonizing women who get an abortion is demonizing God. Taking away a woman’s right to control her body is taking away her right to control her life.

Phil Beauchamp, Chino Hills

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To the editor: The good doctor is right in everything except what counts — in defining when life begins. His point that life develops along a continuum is 99.9% true.

The one exceptional moment is conception, for that is when a sperm and egg, neither viable in their own right, fuse to bring a new organism to this world. This organism has its own unique human genome, never seen before or to be seen again.

This organism may not prove viable, true, but any zygote, embryo, fetus, live birth or 20-year-old may not prove viable either. Death can come at any time, and death comes for us all. But death isn’t a denial of life, just its natural end.

Robert Helbing, Monrovia

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To the editor: It was refreshing to read a few scientific facts about conception. In case anyone still wants to think of a fertilized egg as an individual human being, here’s another scientific fact:

Dolly the cloned sheep got her DNA not from egg and sperm cells, but from a nipple cell. If you conflate a cell that has the potential to become an individual organism with a living, breathing being, I guess you’ll call me a killer if I scratch my chest.

Scott McKenzie, La Cañada Flintridge

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