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When a Fetus becomes a Person |
The Church of Reality recognizes that a person's life begins at live birth. There are other religions that claim, "Life begins at Conception", but we are not one of those religions. It is clear to us, for example, that the two cells that create us are both alive before conception and therefore no new life is actually created at the moment of cellular fusion. After the cells fuse they have to implant onto the uterine wall. At that point the cells might split into two people creating identical twins, or just fail to grow due to some other flaw leading to miscarriage. Current technology allows fertilization to take place outside of a mother's body, so the idea that zygotes are human individuals is something we find ridiculous.
Technology creates fuzzy lines and we recognize that. But if you have to create some sort of hard line, that line would logically be live birth. There are circumstances however where the line can shift somewhat in some circumstances. There are sometimes reasons to consider the rights and needs of the pre born in order to help ensure their survival. There are times when a baby is born in a brain dead state and it is not really fully alive at the time of birth. These special circumstances are issues to be resolved by the medical community along with the mother and family that are involved. In spite of the fuzzy line however, in the Church of Reality a person becomes an individual officially when born alive.
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