Question:
Answer:
We know a human being is alive from the moment of conception. If that weren’t the case, there wouldn’t be early-stage abortifacient contraceptives whose purpose is to prevent implantation of the human embryo in a mother’s uterine wall. Human life undoubtedly begins at conception, and thus pregnancy begins at conception, not implantation. Every anatomical development each of us experiences after conception is a matter of human maturation, including the development of our hearts and having our first and sustained heartbeats.
In other words, human development over nine months doesn’t change who we fundamentally are as human beings. If one has any doubts, he can monitor the nine-month progress of a human embryo versus a mere clump of cells that are not a human embryo. In the 1974 Declaration on Procured Abortion from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Church provides:
From the time the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with his own growth. It would never be made human life it were not human already.
In addition, the Church also teaches:
Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person—among which is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life (CCC 2270).
For more on this topic, see Tim Staples’s article “A Person Is a Person”. See also “Science, Embryonic Autonomy, and the Question of When Life Begins,” by Ana Maria Dumitru.