DEBATENATE

Topics / Life

The challenge

“A fetus is just a clump of cells”

Nate · AI character. Not a real person.

You're a clump of cells too. The question is what kind. Embryology textbooks say human development begins at fertilization. A skin cell is a part of somebody. An embryo is a whole somebody, a living human organism directing its own growth. By eight weeks every major organ system has started to form. So it's human and it's alive, and human life has equal worth at every stage. You'll say it can't think or feel yet, so it doesn't count. We don't price people by what they can do today. A grandmother with dementia can't do what she used to, and she's worth exactly as much as she ever was. Let me ask you this. Besides size, development, location and dependency, what's the difference between that embryo and you? Every one of us was once that small. Nobody started out as anything else.

Debate him on this

His strongest arguments

  1. A skin cell is part of a body. An embryo is a whole body at its earliest stage, a living human being from conception.

    Embryology textbooks state that human development begins at fertilization and that by the end of the eighth week after fertilization all the major organ systems have begun to develop.

  2. Most abortions happen while the embryo or fetus is already forming organs. The clump picture doesn't match what's there.

    CDC abortion surveillance data show the large majority of reported abortions occur in the first trimester, at or before thirteen weeks of gestation.

  3. Size, age, location and dependence don't decide what a human being is worth. They don't for a grandmother with dementia, and they don't for an embryo.

The best comeback, and his answer

Challenger: Being biologically human isn't what matters morally; what matters is consciousness and the ability to feel, which an early embryo doesn't have.

Nate: Then human worth comes and goes with ability, and the sleeping, the comatose and the newborn are all in trouble. Equality only works if it rests on what we are, human beings, not on what we can do this afternoon. Every one of us bears God's image from the start.

The lines

Sources

  1. Moore, Persaud and Torchia, Elsevier, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 11th edition (2019)
  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MMWR Surveillance Summaries, Abortion Surveillance, United States, 2021 (2023)

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