At 20 weeks gestation the spino-thalamic system (the human pain-conveying network) is fully established. Observations of human fetal response to painful stimulation supports this. An English study in 1994 by Prof. Nicholas Fisk showed that two types of hormones released during pain and stress rose to high levels when blood was drawn (for necessary testing) from the living fetus by puncturing the abdomen. As a 'control' experiment, blood was drawn from the painless umbilical vein source; these unborn babies did not release the pain and stress hormones.

Research indicates that approximately half of the women who abort suffer physical complications. The physical trauma includes hemorrhaging, infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, increased risk of breast cancer, blood and tissue sensitization, hysterectomy, blocked fallopian tubes, sterility, cervical incompetence, miscarriages of later wanted children, ectopic pregnancies, stillbirths, increased prematurely and complications in subsequent pregnancies.

The term Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS) has been applied to the emotional and behavioral symptoms that appear over time following an abortion, a variation of Post Traumatic Stress. A similar pattern occurs with aborted women. Initially they deny the traumatic nature of the event. they fail to grieve for the lost child and the repressed emotions eventually create emotional and behavioral problems. Research indicates that most women display one of several of the following symptoms: depression, self-hatred, psychosomatic illness, drug & alcohol abuse, psychotic breakdowns, suicide attempts, lower self-esteem, anger, hostility, sexual coldness, child abuse, insomnia and nightmares, anxiety, helplessness, bitterness, unforgiveness of self, loneliness, promiscuity, eating disorders.

No. It is not a potential human being. It is, rather, a human being with vast potential.` One could say that the sperm and ovum, before their union, constitute a potential human being. Once their union is completed, "they" have become an actual human being.

Human death can occur at any time during our journey through life. This could be minutes after fertilization or 95 years after fertilization. Human death is merely the end of human life.

Ultrasonic stethoscopes, now common in obstetrician's offices allow the mother to actually hear her baby's heart beat as early as eight weeks.

Electrical brain waves have been recorded as early as forty days. The brain itself is completely present by eight weeks.

This is an old English word. Originally, people thought there was no life until the mother felt the "stirring of life". We now know that the mother does not feel her baby until he weighs 1 lb and is 1 foot long. That is when he gets strong enough for her to feel him. Modern research has shown us that quickening or movement first occurs at six weeks.

At nine to then weeks he squints, swallows, moves his tongue, and if you stroke his palm, will make a tight fist. At eleven to twelve weeks, he is sucking his thumb vigorously.

By eleven to twelve weeks, he is breathing fluid steadily and continues so until birth. At birth, he will breathe air.

His stomach secretes gastric juices by eight weeks.

Fingernails are present by about eleven to twelve weeks; eyelashes by sixteen.

By eight weeks (2 months).

By eleven weeks.

All twenty milk-teeth buds are present by six and a half weeks.

At eighteen weeks, the baby can go through the motion of crying as he is equipped with a full set of vocal chords. But without air it cannot make a sound.

At twelve weeks he weighs one ounce, at sixteen weeks six ounces, and at twenty weeks approximately one pound.