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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Is pregnancy really viable only after implantation in the uterus?

(Ms. Lorayes is simply arguing in favor of the position that life begins at conception / fertilization, and it is solely for that reason that I've posted her letter to the Inquirer editor. I have no knowledge of her position regarding the RH Bill and other moral controversies regarding human life and sexuality. CAP)

Cases show life begins in fertilization 
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:16:00 01/04/2011

IN HER December 15, 2010 column “A new form of ‘sexting,’” Rina Jimenez-David stated that “scientific opinion has it that a pregnancy is viable only after implantation in the uterus.”

That is true—in general. However, there have been a few, very, very rare cases where ectopic pregnancies, in which the fertilized ovum implants outside the uterus, produced live births. In 1999, there was a case of multiple births in the United Kingdom in which one baby developed in the fallopian tube while twins developed in the uterus. On April 12, 2008, an Englishwoman, Jayne Jones, delivered a live birth at 28 weeks from a pregnancy which developed in the fatty covering of the large bowel. On May 29 of the same year, an Australian, Meera Thanagarajah, delivered a full-term, living baby from an ectopic pregnancy which developed in the ovary.

The controversy, actually, is not over when a pregnancy becomes viable, but over when life begins: at fertilization or at implantation in the uterus? As these unusual ectopic pregnancies show, life begins at fertilization, not at implantation in the uterus. With the advances in in vitro fertilization, human life can even begin in a Petri dish, or whatever container is used in this process.

—ARACELI Z. LORAYES,
112 Guava Drive,
Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City

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