Development of the unborn child

People who support abortion state that words like ‘baby’ and ‘child’ are emotional and are misleading. They use the Latin words ‘foetus’ and ‘embryo’ to distance and depersonalise the child in people’s minds.

However, if people understood Latin, they would realise that ‘embryo’ does not mean ‘a clinical mass of cells’ but ‘growing one’, and ‘foetus’ means ‘young one’. These words are just as emotional to those who understand Latin and beautifully describe a growing baby. In reality they do not support the intention of those who use them in this way at all.

There is no stage at all at which a human embryo is less than fully human. We were all embryos (and pre-embryos, blastocysts, etc) before we were born.

This is the pattern of our growth

Day one - Conception. The baby’s facial features, sex, eye colour, hair colour, height, etc are all determined now. The cell divides into two, the two into four and so on.

1 week - The embryo is attached to the wall of the womb

2 weeks - The baby stops its mother’s menstrual period with its hormones

3 weeks - The baby’s heart is beating, eyes developing

6 weeks - Brainwaves can be detected (one criterion used to determine whether a person is alive). A complete skeleton of cartilage is apparent. Soon the first rigid bone cells begin to replace the cartilage starting with the bones in the upper arms. Teeth are budding. The baby feels pain and responds to touch. It sucks its thumb. It grasps an instrument placed in its palm. It swims with a natural swimmer’s stroke.

8 weeks -The baby has a recognisably human face, a little mouth with lips, eyes, eyelids, fingers, thumbs, knees, toes, and all the internal organs of an adult. We can see if it is male or female. It is sending out brain impulses that coordinate the functioning of its organs - the stomach is producing digestive juices, the liver manufacturers blood cells, pigment (colour) has formed in the retina of the eye - it can be seen that it is a blue-eyed, or brown-eyed, or hazel-eyed child now. Taste buds form.

10 weeks - The body is completely formed, even fingerprints

12 weeks - After 12 weeks all organs are present and all body systems are functioning. The baby is active and energetic, practising new skills like sucking its thumb, making a fist and flexing muscles. Breathing is practised. The baby can turn its head, open its mouth and press its lips tightly together. Nerves and muscles are synchronising and as strength is gained the mother, will, from 16 weeks, feel the sharp kicks and thrusts of the baby’s limbs.

The baby needs only to grow and mature until birth.

Birth isn’t the beginning of life, it’s just a change of residence.

Development continues until about 23 years of age.