“The Fetus Is ‘Alive’”

● Dr. Michael J. Halberstam, a physician in Washington, D.C., wrote an article on abortion in the medical journal Ob.Gyn.News of May 15, 1970. Among the things he discussed, the following is especially worthy of consideration: “Medicine basically is the business of life. The physician is enjoined to protect and preserve life. I am talking now of biological life . . . the life that has to do with the welfare, say, of the mother, a family or of society as a whole.

“The physician is taught to make no distinction as to the stage or quality of the life he is to protect.” Then Dr. Halberstam mentioned that “the fetus [unborn child] receives its entire genetic potential of RNA and DNA at conception. . . .

“The fetus is also unique. Its exact combination of proteins has never existed before, will never exist again.

“There is no doubt that the fetus is ‘alive,’ though in a special way. As I do not believe in the immortal soul, I do not equate the life of the fetus with the life of the mother, but as a physician I know that it lives and as a human being I am in awe of it.” And Jehovah God’s law to Israel showed that he regarded the fetus or the developing child as alive and so it was respected as a life.​—Ex. 21:22, 23.