Eleven weeks from conception

Is a Fetus Alive?

Some people say human life begins at conception.

Others insist the human fetus becomes a person at birth, or even at some time after birth.

Still others point to a time in the middle, the twentieth week of gestation, because at that point a baby is viable - can live outside the womb.

WHO IS RIGHT? The question is important when thinking about abortion.



Five signs of life in the womb:

Heartbeat
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 Modern technology can detect a baby's heartbeat eighteen days after conception
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 This is only four days after most women miss a period and begin to suspect they are pregnant.
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 Most abortions are not performed until the eighth week (56 days) of a pregnancy, or a little later.

Brain waves
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 Six weeks after conception signals from the fetal brain can be detected.
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 Dream patterns have been discovered around the eighth or ninth week.
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 Perhaps more advanced technology will someday show us heartbeats and brain waves at even earlier stages in the unborn child's life.

Independent movement
•  At about the sixth week, the baby in the womb can move spontaneously: kicking, swimming, jumping and stretching.
•  This is long before the mother will feel any sensations of movement.

Senses
•  A baby in the womb is capable of responding to touch and sound by about the eighth or tenth week.
•  A child at that age will move away from painful stimuli; the most painful of which would be the abortionist's instrument.

Breathing
•  By about the fourteenth week, a baby's lungs are functioning and he or she will practice breathing.
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Vocal cords are formed by the thirteenth week, and were it not for a lack of air, the baby could be heard to cry!

•  From the very beginning, once a human egg is fertilized by sperm, there exists a new human being. All information about the child's sex, hair color, eye color, and much more is already present.

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