One of the most frequently asked questions in the abortion debate is: "When does life begin?" It's the wrong question. Life, as any biologist will tell you, never begins. It always ends, eventually - but it never begins. All living matter comes only from other living matter.

Let us narrow the scope of the question. "When does human life begin?" The answer is the same as above: Human life comes only from pre-existing human life. Living human cells come only from other living human cells.

Very well then, "When does human life become a human being?" That is the correct question. The answer lies in the definition of "human being." Biologically, a living human being is a vertebrate animal organism, Homo sapiens.

What, then, is an organism? It is a living, corporeal entity that exists and functions of, by, and for itself. It may consist of a single cell, such as an amoeba, or of a group of cells, tissues, and organs that can achieve titanic size, such as a blue whale.

If an organism can consist of a single cell (such as an amoeba) can we say that a sperm cell from a frog is an organism? No. Nor can we make the same statement for a brain cell or a muscle cell. These are highly specialized cells and function only as part of a  collective whole. Isolate a brain cell from its living matrix and it soon dies. Likewise, the sperm cell has but one function: to fertilize the ovum or die.  

An organism, on the other hand, is self-sufficient. It ingests and metabolizes food; it grows; it is usually capable of locomotion; it is capable of reproduction. Most importantly, it is an independently functioning, living "machine," so to speak, existing of its own accord.

In order to establish the parameters necessary to define an organism, biologists utilize three criteria: morphology (the form of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism); physiology (the function of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism); and genomics (the DNA "blueprint" of a cell, tissue, organ, or organism). Of these three criteria, genomics establishes the identity of an individual organism with the greatest precision.

Every organism has its own unique genetic code. That code tells us precisely what the organism is. Thus, we can present the biologist with two apparently identical samples of tissue, one from the liver of a human and the other from that of a chimpanzee. After carefully examining the chromosomes in the nuclei of cells taken from each of the tissue samples, the biologist can tell us with absolute certainty which is human and which is simian. Living simian cells come only from other living simian cells. Living human cells come only from other living human cells. A simian cell can never become a human cell and vice versa.

Every organism has a definite lifecycle: There is a point in time at which the organism begins its existence as an organism, followed by a period of metabolism, growth, and reproduction, ending at the moment the organism dies.

The human organism - like every other living organism - begins its existence as a single cell. As we have seen above, a sperm cell is not an organism. Neither is an ovum. Yet, when the two unite, they form a zygote. This zygote is a complete - though not completed - living, organized, unique, individual human life form with its own particular morphological and physiological destiny. It contains the entire genetic code sequence of an individual human being (with the informational equivalent of 1,000 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica).

The programming in this genetic code will cause the zygote to divide and differentiate, to form hormones and tissues. In the absence of disease, accident, or incident, this single cell will, in the course of 36 to 39 weeks, become a newborn human. From the time it begins its existence it is never anything but alive (living cells can come only from other living cells) and never anything but human (only human cells come from other human cells). The human zygote is therefore a living, human organism.

But is it a human being?

Most people understand that a frog never becomes an elephant. A frog is a frog. Then again, a tadpole is a tadpole. But is a tadpole a frog? Some folks would argue not: The tadpole has no lungs; it has gills. It has no legs; it has a tail. It looks and acts just like a fish. It can't be a frog, can it? Well, it depends upon how you define the frog organism.

May we identify an organism as a frog purely on the basis of its morphology (physical form)? The biologist will say no. Three criteria are necessary for biological identification, morphology being only one of them. Physiology and genomics are the other two.

The biologist will not hesitate to affirm that the tadpole is indeed a frog. The living organism we call "frog" (Rana catabiensis) undergoes profound morphological and physiological changes in the course of its lifecycle. Although these changes are radical, the genetic code - the DNA blueprint that defines this particular organism - never changes. For this reason, no biologist ever confuses form with substance when establishing the identity of an organism.

The biologist will tell you that a frog is a frog from the instant it first functions as an independent organism, regardless of the form it takes during the course of its development. It will be nothing other than a frog when it dies. An organism is never identified purely on the basis of its morphological or physiological state at any given point in its lifecycle. It would be like declaring the benchmark of life for the butterfly organism is the presence of wings and antennae and then, after examining the caterpillar, pronouncing that, because it has neither wings nor antennae, it is neither living nor a butterfly, despite the fact that it is a living organism with the genome of the butterfly and, if it is not killed before it completes its metamorphosis, will become nothing other than a butterfly.

Nevertheless, there are some people who persist in their belief that an unborn human is not a human being, particularly when discussing the earlier stages of human development in the womb: "But I just don't feel that it's human. It doesn't look or act human. Wouldn't a better criterion be heartbeat, brain waves, arms, legs, viability outside the womb, etc.?"

The list is long and could be extended indefinitely, but all such criteria are vague, arbitrary, or scientifically insupportable. While fetal viability, for example, may be a convenient benchmark for consensus politicians, it is irrelevant with regard to the biological humanity of the developing fetus. The intrauterine development of an organism is simply one phase of its living existence, and is immaterial to its biological identity.

The operative word is "feel" and that approach is as old as it is dangerous. Slave owners didn't “feel” that Negroes were fully human; Nazis didn't “feel” that Jews, Slavs and Gypsies were fully human and concocted outrageous pseudo-scientific proof that they were sub-human. From time immemorial, man's inhumanity to man has been rooted in the fact that one particular family, clan, tribe, or nation did not feel that another was truly human, and on countless tragic occasions this has become the twisted rationale behind persecutions, slavery, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, and genocide.

Biological science demonstrates with geometric force that every human being begins his existence as a zygote and that every living human zygote is a human being at the first stage of development in his lifecycle. This determination has nothing to do with feeling or emotion and is no more a matter of religion or opinion than 1+1=2 or E=mc².

Having established through logic and science that every human being begins his existence as a zygote, we now address two additional questions:

1. Are all human beings human persons?

2. Do all human persons have an inalienable right to life?

We now enter the realm of political philosophy and the theory of personhood and rights. Generally, "personhood" is a term used in the context of the rights and obligations of human beings, although the concept has been extended to embrace corporations. In this context, a human person is defined as a human being possessing certain rights and obligations.

Is Joe Doakes a human being because he is a human person or is he a human person because he is a human being? This is the pivotal question in the abortion debate and it has only two possible answers.

A. If we state that Joe Doakes is a human being because he is a human person, we must conclude that the defining source of "personhood" lies apart from his existence as a human organism. In the absence of anarchy and solipsism, the only defining source of personhood becomes the government. The existing political authority defines personhood and establishes who and what are persons, as well as who and what are not persons.

Consequently, personhood is ultimately defined by the prevailing political agenda. If government becomes the source of personhood (and therefore what is and is not human), it logically follows that political power becomes the fountainhead of human rights and a government with this degree of power is nothing less than totalitarian, with Nazi Germany as the paradigm.

In effect, Hitler's Reich said: "You are a human being only if you are a person. We will decide who is and who is not a person. You Jews and Gypsies are not persons and therefore are not humans."

The Nazis might have objected that the reverse was true, that Hitler said: "According to our best scientific minds, you Jews and Gypsies are not humans and therefore are not persons." In this case we can only reiterate the biological facts outlined earlier. The denial of their humanity had nothing whatsoever to do with biological fact; it had everything to do with "feeling" and egregious pseudo-science. If the Nazis were truly honest they would have said, "We just don't feel that you are human."

We are thus presented with the defining question: Is the human fetus a human being only because it is a human person? In effect that was the question addressed by the ruling of the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. For that matter, we could have posed a similar question in 1857: "Is the Negro a human being only because he is a human person?" We all know the answer of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision. If we accept that personhood derives from the state and not from the fact that one is a human being, we have made the unalienable right to life (and any other civil right) an empty, meaningless concept.

B. If Joe Doakes is a human person precisely because he is a human being, everything changes. His personhood - and the rights that accompany it – derive exclusively from the fact that he is a human being. To paraphrase the Declaration of Independence "All human beings are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, among these, life..."

An unalienable right is one that is intrinsic to humanity and cannot be ceded to any other individual or authority. From time to time, these rights may be abridged or even deprived through due process of law (e.g., imprisonment for committing a felony, or execution for capital crimes). Nevertheless, as natural endowments, they possess a moral authority that imposes upon the state the obligation to respect and uphold them. Therefore, by his very nature as a human being, Joe Doakes is a person, and no political power on earth can take his personhood away from him.

Biological science tells us that African slaves were human beings (even if ignorant bigots said they were not). The Declaration of Independence tells us that, as human beings, they were therefore human persons (even if a feckless Supreme Court said they were not). The U.S. Constitution tells us that, as human persons, they possessed the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (even if these rights were systematically denied to them for centuries).

The conclusion is unavoidable: The human fetus is a human being; all human beings are human persons; all human persons possess an inalienable right to life which, according to the U.S. Constitution, may not be deprived without due process of law.

In order to conform itself to biological reality, the intent of the Founding Fathers and our own Constitution, both federal and state governments would have to establish as a matter of law that one's very existence as an unborn human being - if undesired by the mother - is a capital crime punishable by death. To fulfill the constitutional requirement of due process, a mother who chooses to abort her child would have to file criminal charges.

However, commission of a crime requires criminal intent - a capacity the unborn human lacks. Assuming this hurdle is vaulted, the abortion procedure would be preceded by a trial in a court of law. In the event of a guilty verdict, the subsequent appeals would take years to move through the appellate courts. By the time they are exhausted, the defendant would be at least 10 years old.

To circumvent this Kafkaesque absurdity, the Supreme Court effectively stripped personhood from prenatal human beings by denying they are human beings, thereby establishing that personhood derives from political authority instead of humanity. This is no more rational than affirming that blacks are chattel or Jews and Slavs are sub-human.

In many cases, well-meaning people oppose abortion for religious reasons or from intuitive feelings of right and wrong. As we have seen in the course of this brief discussion, the argument against abortion need not incorporate either religion or morality; it is founded squarely upon biological science and the political principles upon which our republic was founded. Abortion violates the civil rights of the unborn human person and denies that human person his or her unalienable right to life.