Following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling last month that decided that frozen embryos are to be considered children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, two co-hosts of “The View” debated whether or not human embryos are human beings worthy of protection under the law. In order to argue that embryos should not be considered children, one co-host claimed that embryos aren’t even “alive.”
Living embryos are alive
Sara Haines told fellow co-host Sunny Hostin that she was considering the “facts” and “science” regarding whether or not frozen embryos are human beings worthy of being called children. She decided they are not worthy, but her reasons as to why she thinks so are unfounded. Regarding “a fertilized embryo” (which is not a scientific term, by the way) that is “three to five days old,” Haines said, “It is not alive outside of a uterus. It has no organs, it is not a life yet, it is not viable till it’s 24 weeks.”
Here is a photo of a preborn child at 8 weeks past fertilization (10 weeks LMP).:
8 weeks
Hostin disagreed, but Haines condescendingly pushed, “This is science, Sunny.”
She snarked, “The embryo is an embryo until 10 weeks when it becomes a fetus, a fetus is not viable until 24 weeks. If we’re going to use science, let’s use scientific terms.”
But Haines misunderstands both biology and the meaning of “viability.”
Labels don’t define a human’s humanity
But whether or not ‘scientific terms’ are used to label a preborn child does not make her any more or less human. At fertilization, a new human life comes into existence complete with her own unique DNA and traits from her hair color to sex are already determined. This is basic biology. Whether she is labeled a zygote or an embryo or a baby does not change science. This ‘label’ does not make humans human — DNA does.
Likewise, to say an embryo is not alive because it is not inside the uterus is false. An embryo is growing and changing from within. This type of growth is unique to living organisms. Like born humans, an embryo outside of its natural environment will not survive, but that doesn’t mean it was never alive. If you leave a born human being in space or in the ocean without what it needs to survive (oxygen, potable water, food, etc.), that human will eventually die — but obviously, that human was alive before he was left in an environment hostile to his own survival.
External factors don’t determine humanity
Haines was not alone in her erroneous beliefs about science and human life. She had the support of several commenters on The New York Post’s video of The View co-hosts sparring.
One person wrote, “Not all living things are a person. An embryo is not a person. Can I get a social security number for an embryo? How about a life insurance policy? Can I get a court to sign a child support order for an embryo? Just because what may one day be a person is living inside of a woman doesn’t mean that thing is a person yet.”
However, these questions have nothing to do with a person’s humanity as a member of the human species. After all, immigrants to the United States aren’t issued immediate social security numbers, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t humans.
As for a life insurance policy, it can be impossible for even adults with a chronic health condition to get life insurance. That doesn’t mean they aren’t human. Pro-life legislators in Kentucky are working to ensure child support exists for babies in the womb to help mothers cover medical expenses related to pregnancy. But if child support is not paid, the doesn’t negate a child’s humanity. If a father doesn’t pay child support for a born child, his child isn’t any less of a human being than a child whose father pays thousands in child support.
None of these external factors determine a person’s humanity.
Another commenter argued, “Beliefs are one thing, facts and science are another. It’s time we respect scientific facts over what people feel like.” But Haines is wrong, and so is this commenter — because the accepted facts can change.
What was once considered fact — the earth being flat, for example — has sometimes later been proven wrong. It was once believed that newborns can’t feel pain, but this has been proven wrong as well. It was once believed the pregnancy began at ‘quickening’ but medical inventions have proven otherwise. New technology continues to emerge that is confirming that human life begins at fertilization. The Doppler allows us to hear the human heart in the womb, which begins to beat at about 21 days post-fertilization. Ultrasounds — especially the newer 4D ultrasounds — show us a much clearer picture of life inside the womb than ever before. And doctors can now perform surgeries on preborn children.
These truths are not based on religious beliefs but on scientific fact that has been emerging and changing over time.
Other commenters compared preborn children to ‘parasites’ and ‘tape worms.’ One claimed, “Being alive doesn’t make those things people.” But a tapeworm is not a human being, nor can it ever become one. What makes a human a human is not simply being alive, but having human DNA.
A parasite is defined as “an organism that lives in or on an organism of another species.” (emphasis added) A human embryo can’t be a parasite to a human adult because they are the same species. That embryo also did not relocate itself to its mother but was created by the mother’s natural biological functions along with the sperm from the father.
To say that “a life is only a life when it can support itself” is also false. Countless human beings rely on life support, supplemental oxygen, or insulin pumps. This doesn’t mean they aren’t living humans. It means they are living humans who are benefiting from medical advancements meant to protect humans. In addition, a newborn can’t support her own life any more than a fetus in the womb at 29 weeks can.
One commenter fell back on a common erroneous idea to compare chicken eggs to human embryos. “But yet you don’t care about that egg in that pan being a life,” they wrote. But an unfertilized chicken egg is not an embryo. Embryos are created when eggs are fertilized — again, this is basic biology. And a chicken is not a human. Humans are protected from harm by laws, while chickens serve as food sources for humans. One of the problems with legalized abortion is that it is the result of the government’s failure to protect all human beings equally.
It’s a scientific fact that a new, living human being comes into existence at fertilization. It doesn’t matter how or where fertilization occurs, only that it did occur. It also doesn’t matter how long that unique human being lives — just that she was created and lived whether for five days or 100 years. It doesn’t matter if she was never issued a social security number or if she never received child support. She was always a human being from the start.
