{"id":249351,"date":"2021-07-19T06:43:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T11:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=249351"},"modified":"2021-07-17T18:34:25","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T23:34:25","slug":"respond-pro-abortion-clump-of-cells-argument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/respond-pro-abortion-clump-of-cells-argument\/","title":{"rendered":"How to respond to the pro-abortion ‘It’s just a clump of cells’ argument"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Secular Pro-Life<\/a>) “It’s just a clump of cells, not a baby.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Most pro-lifers won’t go more than a month or two without hearing this stubborn phrase. Pro-choicers often chant it as a one-liner to shoot down a pro-lifer’s honest argument or just to express their unyielding abortion support. In cases where they actually believe it and are willing to discuss with you, it’s important to have a few handy points up your sleeve to get them really listening.<\/p>\n

Despite this phrase being both inaccurate and usually thrown about only to deceive or provoke anger, in a culture where ‘”repeating something enough makes it true,” it has become a widely-held “fact” among the public. However, there is much to rebut against this argument, and that\u2019s why it gets so tough. Where do we even start?<\/p>\n

Well, to begin with, I often like to point out that every human alive right now, including both the pro-choicer and the pro-lifer, are also clumps of cells (or clusters of cells, blobs of tissue, etc.). This can prompt the opposition to get more specific as to the differences they are trying to highlight between the born and the unborn that they believe justify abortion. Two different paths can be taken from there, depending on their argument. The first is more scientific, and the second more philosophical. Ordinarily, they will both be touched upon at some point, in the respective order.<\/p>\n

The first argument is that while all humans are technically “clumps of cells,” what they mean is that early embryos or zygotes mostly consist of cells containing genetic information that are blueprints for any and all of their future body parts, called “(embryonic) stem cells<\/a>,” whereas older fetuses and born human bodies are more organized into groups of like cells, such as skin, organs, hair, etc. However, even in the earliest stages of fetal development<\/a> (such as the blastocyst – a child around the age they implant in their mother\u2019s uterus 3-5 days after fertilization<\/a>), she is organized into parts, with her inner cells making up her body and the outer ones developing into her nourishing placenta. A bit later, when the child is 2-3 weeks old<\/a> in the womb as an embryo, she has three layers of cells in her tiny body: The top layer (ectoderm) which gives rise to her outermost layer of skin, central and peripheral nervous systems, eyes, and inner ears; the middle layer of cells (mesoderm), from which her heart, primitive circulatory system, bones, ligaments, kidneys and much of her reproductive system will form; and the inner layer of cells (endoderm) where the child\u2019s lungs and intestines will develop. By week 7-8<\/a>, all of the fetus\u2019s major organs\/parts (heart, brain, spine, limbs) are fully formed and mostly functional.<\/p>\n