Life begins before the first breath

I rebut the statement that Genesis 2:7 defines the beginning of the soul and life not until a baby’s first breath (letters, Aug. 2). Babies are alive in their mother’s womb and certainly not “inanimate as ‘the dust of the ground.’ ” I believe that along the evolutionary trail God created the first human in his own likeness, with an intellect, free will and an eternal soul. Genesis describes this as God “breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Long before birth, the product of human fertilization is a human being whose life should be protected from harm (cocaine, abortion, etc.). A baby’s first breath at birth is not the same as God blowing into the face of the first human.

MARIO MICHAEL MARTINI MD

Pacific Palisades