and the many
             biological similarities between a fetus and a fully-grown human being. In
             the article "Rites of Life," Landrun Shettles and David Rorvik quote Daniel
             Callahan, director of the Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life
             Sciences observed: "Genetically, hormonally and in all organic respects
             save for the source of its nourishment, a fetus and an embryo is separate
             from the woman" (cited in Shettles and Rorvick 18-19).
             There is wide consensus among the scientific community that human life
             begins when the human sperm impregnates the human egg. In the article
             "Abortion as a Form of Genocide," ethicist Michael Cunningham points out
             that medical textbooks recognize that this zygote is "a beginning of a new
             human being" (Cunningham 60). Furthermore, Carloyn Gargaro argues that
             medical research has proven that a fetus is "a living organism from the
             moment of conception" (Gargaro 37). The union of sperm and egg results in
             a cell with 46 chromosomes. That one fertilized cell has shares an
             important similarity with the rest of the humans in the world. It already
             has DNA, the complete genetic code for a unique human life.
             Advances in science and technology have further reinforced this
             argument. Parents routinely rejoice over sonograms showing their babies at
             six weeks old. Mothers listen for heartbeats or the faint flutter of
             kicks. To them, the embryo or fetus is more than a mere blob of cells - it
             Medicine has helped make the point of viability earlier. Nancy Meyers
             correctly argues in "Abortion is Morally Wrong" that premature babies born
             at 24 weeks survive in greater numbers, while some babies born at 20 and 21
             weeks have survived with medical care (Meyers 174). When these babies are
             born, they are again viewed as persons and thus receive due medical care.
             In the same vein, a woman who suffers a miscarriage is not told that
             she has lost a fet...