Why is the title of your Sept. 13 editorial "When does life begin?" phrased as a question?

The answer is obviously at conception. When a sperm successfully fertilizes an egg, the genetic package is complete with the species, sex and characteristics of the future individual determined. In the case of humans, the colors of the eyes, hair and skin plus the body size and type, features, etc., of the future person is determined.

The viability of the fertilized egg is shown by the first cell division. After that its survival is a matter of nutrition. When the embryo exhausts its food supply and does not implant in the wall of the mother's womb, it will die.

After birth the baby must be fed and taken care of until the age that it can take care of itself, or it will die.

The nine months that the baby (or fetus) is in the womb are perilous, as the mother's immune system treats the baby as a foreign object in the body and tries to kill it. If the mother's immune system breaks through the baby's defenses, the baby is soon dead.

Ancient philosophers and theologians had various opinions about when the soul enters the body. They knew very little of biology and nothing of genetics, so considered quickness, the first movements of a baby in the womb, as the start of life.

Anybody citing these various opinions is showing his and the ancients' ignorance.ÂSome of these ancients also debated "How many angels can stand on the head of a pin?" The answer is: all of them, as they are pure spirits without bodies.