I believe life begins at conception, but would "settle" for heartbeat law "for now", and here's why: Medically, heartbeat and brain function are a measure of death. If we say someone is medically dead when their heart/brain cease, then there is a logic to saying they are medically alive when their heart/brain starts. I personally believe that a person continues even after medical death, and that they begin before heartbeat. As it stands now, we have clearly defined rules about medical death, but medical start-of-life has zero logic to it and is just "up to the mother". So we need better, more logical rules about when medically life begins. I'd love it if that were "conception", and that is most logical to me (since the baby has unique DNA and is growing). However, heartbeat is 5 weeks in, and often before a woman knows they are pregnant, and it is logically more consistent than "whenever the mother feels like, even if it's a couple hours after birth". Given all that, I'll take a "heartbeat" law for now as it is somewhat logical given how we mark death, but then continue to push for "conception" as it more fully represents my and my wife's views on the matter.
I believe life begins at conception, but would "settle" for heartbeat law "for now", and here's why: Medically, heartbeat and brain function are a measure of death. If we say someone is medically dead when their heart/brain cease, then there is a logic to saying they are medically alive when their heart/brain starts. I personally believe that a person continues even after medical death, and that they begin before heartbeat. As it stands now, we have clearly defined rules about medical death, but medical start-of-life has zero logic to it and is just "up to the mother". So we need better, more logical rules about when medically life begins. I'd love it if that were "conception", and that is most logical to me (since the baby has unique DNA and is growing). However, heartbeat is 5 weeks in, and often before a woman knows they are pregnant, and it is logically more consistent than "whenever the mother feels like, even if it's a couple hours after birth". Given all that, I'll take a "heartbeat" law for now as it is somewhat logical given how we mark death, but then continue to push for "conception" as it more fully represents my and my wife's views on the matter.