UNBORN HUMAN LIFE

Although, as H. Tristam Engelhardt has observed, "many describe the status of the embryo imprecisely by asking when human life begins or whether the embryo is a human being . . . no one seriously denies that the human zygote is a human life.  The zygote is not dead.  It is also not simian, porcine, or canine."

Philosopher Peter Singer, who is famously and enthusiastically pro-choice, has acknowledged that "the early embryo is a 'human life.'  Embryos formed from the sperm and eggs of human beings are certainly human, no matter how early in their development they may be.  They are of the species Homo sapiens, and not of any other species.  We can tell when they are alive, and when they have died.  So long as they are alive, they are human life."

Similarly, constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, a staunch pro-choice advocate, has written that "the fetus is alive.  It belongs to the human species.  It elicits sympathy and even love, in part because it is so dependent and helpless."
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