Episode 27: When Does Human Life Begin?

Welcome to Practical Apologetics, where we give clear answers to everyday Christians with real questions.

I'm Kenneth Willis.

Today we're beginning a new four-episode series, and this one's gonna deal with one of the most controversial issues in our culture, abortion.

Over the next four episodes, we're gonna take this argument one piece at a time.

We're going to ask when human life begins.

We're going to ask whether the unborn is a person.

We're going to look at what the Bible actually says about life in the womb.

And then, after we've established that foundation, we're going to ask the question directly.

Can Christians be pro-choice? But I don't want to start there.

Because before we ask whether abortion is right or wrong, before we ask whether it should be legal, and before we even ask what the Bible says about it, there's a more basic question.

What exactly is being aborted? And that's not a theological question.

That's a biological one.

So today we're not going to start with the Bible.

We're going to start with embryology.

For this episode, I'm using two medical embryology textbooks, The Developing Human Clinically Oriented Embryology by Keith Moore, T.V.N. Persaud, and Mark Torsha, and Langman's Medical Embryology by T.W. Sadler.

I'll also reference the Carnegie Stages of Human Embryonic Development.

And I want to make something clear before we go any further.

None of those are Christian apologetics books.

None of those are Christian theology books.

None of those have anything at all to do with religion.

They're medical embryology sources.

I'm also going to use Scott Klusendorf's The Case for Life to help frame some of the arguments we're going to discuss, but when we make scientific claims, the science will be coming from secular scientific sources.

Welcome to Practical Apologetics, where we give clear answers to everyday Christians with real questions.

I'm Kenneth Willis.

Today we're beginning a new four-episode series, and this one's gonna deal with one of the most controversial issues in our culture, abortion.

Over the next four episodes, we're gonna take this argument one piece at a time.

We're going to ask when human life begins.

We're going to ask whether the unborn is a person.

We're going to look at what the Bible actually says about life in the womb.

And then, after we've established that foundation, we're going to ask the question directly.

Can Christians be pro-choice? But I don't want to start there.

Because before we ask whether abortion is right or wrong, before we ask whether it should be legal, and before we even ask what the Bible says about it, there's a more basic question.

What exactly is being aborted? And that's not a theological question.

That's a biological one.

So today we're not going to start with the Bible.

We're going to start with embryology.

For this episode, I'm using two medical embryology textbooks, The Developing Human Clinically Oriented Embryology by Keith Moore, T.V.N. Persaud, and Mark Torsha, and Langman's Medical Embryology by T.W. Sadler.

I'll also reference the Carnegie Stages of Human Embryonic Development.

And I want to make something clear before we go any further.

None of those are Christian apologetics books.

None of those are Christian theology books.

None of those have anything at all to do with religion.

They're medical embryology sources.

I'm also going to use Scott Klusendorf's The Case for Life to help frame some of the arguments we're going to discuss, but when we make scientific claims, the science will be coming from secular scientific sources.