Most Biologists Believe that Life Begins at Conception

“A recent five-year research study has revealed that an overwhelming majority of biologists from 1,058 academic institutions confirm that ‘a human’s life begins at fertilization.’ Steven Jacobs was a University of Chicago, PhD. candidate who recently successfully defended his dissertation, ‘Balancing Abortion Rights and Fetal Rights. A Mixed Methods Mediation of the U. S. Abortion Debate.’ For his research, Jacobs recruited 5,502 academic biologists to participate in his thesis study, ‘Biologists Consensus on When Life Begins.’ The biologists identified themselves as ‘very pro-choice, very pro-life, very liberal, very conservative, strong Democrats and strong Republicans.’ After five years, the research showed that 95% (5212 out 5502) of the biologists affirmed the biological view that a human’s life begins at fertilization, revealing that biology professors in American academia overwhelmingly agree with this pro-life position. During the survey, Jacobs asked the biologists to agree or disagree with two ‘implicit statements.’ (1) ‘The end product of mammalian fertilization is a fertilized egg (zygote), a new mammalian organism in the first stage of its species’ life cycle with its species’ genome.’ Approximately 90% agreed the development of a mammal begins at the moment of fertilization. (2) ‘The development of a mammal begins with fertilization, a process by which the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.’ More than 75% agreed that fertilization marks the beginning of a human’s life. Then the participants were given an open-ended essay question and asked to answer, ‘From a biological perspective,’ the question ‘When does a human’s life begin?’ Ninety percent of biologists who described themselves as ‘very-pro-life’ said at the moment of fertilization. Almost 75 % of those who called themselves ‘pro-choice’ and approximately 60% of those who identified themselves as very ‘pro-choice’ answered the same.”

Christian News, July 29, 2019

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