Having looked at some of the terminology involved in meiosis (gamete formation) we now take a dynamic view of the process. Here is a really good animation:
Short class today. Thursday, we’ll look at Fertilization.
January 26, 2010 by Gerard M. Nadal
Having looked at some of the terminology involved in meiosis (gamete formation) we now take a dynamic view of the process. Here is a really good animation:
Short class today. Thursday, we’ll look at Fertilization.
Fascinating. That’s a more complex process than I remembered. It’s not just two new cells, each with half the chromosomes, it’s four new cells, each with half the number of chromosomes. E.g., one parent cell would divide into four sperms or four ova.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson says in his 1979 book, Confessions of an Ex-Abortionist, that he and others worked hard to convince people that when human life begins is a moral, theological, or philosophical one, not a scientific one. Sounds like the playbook pro-abortionists are still following!
For Dr. Alan Guttmacher, the science was settled in 1933:
We of today know that man is born of sexual union; that he starts life as an embryo within the body of the female; and that the embryo is formed from the fusion of two single cells; the ovum and the sperm. This all seems so simple and evident to us that it is difficult to picture a time when it was not part of common knowledge.
In 1973, Dr. Guttmacher changes his mind:
Scientifically, all we know is that a living sperm unites with a living human egg; if they were not living there could be no union. Does human life begin before or with the union of the gametes, or with birth, or at a time intermediate? I, for one, confess I do not know.
Both quotes are from the book, Blessed Are the Barren: The Social Policy of Planned Parenthood.
You may read the above quotes at http://ignatiusinsight.com/features2009/dennehy_abortion1_may09.asp in an article called Abortion and Idealogy, from a collection of essays entitled The Human Person and the Culture of Freedom.
Fabulous article from Dr. Raymond Dennehy which makes Dr. Nadal’s point: Catholic dogma on contraception and abortion supports science. Opposition to the Church’s position is as unscientific as opposition to the Gregorian callendar!
Oh, good quotes, BHG. Thanks for posting.
Gerard, that is such a fascinating video. Looking forward to Thursday’s post.
maybe Dr. Guttmacher was losing his “scientific” faculties as he aged…..;)
On that same note, years ago, I actually obtained a copy of a 1964 Planned Parenthood brochure that stated, “An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun.”
How they changed their tune since THEN.
Nothing Gerard posted here opened up any need to repost all the tired old things we’ve had to discuss on other occasions. I’m not going to bother today. We all know what we all think, and we’ll all talk about it again soon. Today, let’s just admire the beauty of the gamete formation.
This is as good a place as any to mention that I deliberately refrained from commenting on the post headed Freedom. I read it. I mulled over a few things I see differently. I didn’t say any reason to put them there. Its good to talk to each other, even though Dan and I find each other’s failure to understand MY (respectively) position aggravating. I find it helpful to totally immerse myself in a pro-life milieu, not because you are winning me over, but because we are so far apart I need to see inside the thought process.
But, we don’t need to crash every last one of each other’s parties. That post was a nice quiet space to be left alone, just as it was, unsullied by the distraction of my alternative perspective. There will be other days to debate.