When does life begin? From a scientific point of view, the moment of conception is awe-inspiring. It’s even accompanied by a dramatic flash of light within the fallopian tube.
Dr. William Lile, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, recently described this process in detail with Care Net President and CEO Roland Warren on the new Care Net video series.
New series: “The Doctor Is In” Answers the Question, When Does Life Begin?
Dr. Lile, also known as The Pro-Life Doc, passionately believes that each person is created in the image of God at the moment of conception.
“A patient is a person, no matter how small,” he said.
On the broadcast, Dr. Lile and Roland Warren discussed the question, “When does new life begin?“
The firsthand experience and expertise of Dr. Lile, who has delivered approximately 4,000 babies, left no room for doubt.
“The question is not even a philosophical question,” he said. “It is a scientific question and it is a medical question.”
Dr. Lile explained that when the DNA from the sperm and the DNA from the egg come together as one cell, that one cell is genetically unique from mom and dad and the other seven billion people on the planet. At that one cell stage, the blueprints of life are already laid out.
“That living cell will divide into two, four, eight, 16, 32, 64 cells….As adults, we [are comprised of] about 60 trillion cells. What’s unique is that our DNA, our genetics, never change. If you do a DNA test on somebody who is 90-years old, it will exactly match when they were just one cell in their mother’s womb.”
Roland Warren noted how this data contradicts a common narrative that life is constructed in the womb. That misconception, he explained, occurs when we think of a baby in the womb like the construction of a Tesla.
“When is a Tesla actually a Tesla?” he asked, rhetorically. “The reality is that a Tesla is never intrinsically a Tesla because at any point you could turn a Tesla into a toaster. It could be turned into something else… That’s why there’s human development as opposed to human construction. It’s an absolute miracle.”
“We are all created in the image of God – not on our birthdays, but at that moment of conception,” Dr. Lile noted.
That miracle of conception involves some astounding steps, both before and after the sperm and egg unite. The first sperm to get through to the egg must outswim hundreds of millions of others, “like Michael Phelps.”
“[The sperms] are all trying to get on the inside. But there is only one gold medalist,” Dr. Lile said.
Once the sperm unites with the egg, another incredible process occurs to keep the others out.
“As soon as that first sperm gets on the inside an amazing reaction happens. A shield goes up””just like the Star Trek Enterprise. That shield is called a zona pellucida.”
“At that moment, if you look with the right frequency of light, you can actually see a flash of light that occurs.”
The miraculous, and even mysterious, nature of conception continues when the DNA from the mother and father come together and cellular division begins.
“All the cells are exact copies at that point,” Dr. Lile noted. “How does one cell say, ‘I’m only going to read [certain] pages of the blueprints of life’? ‘I’m going to start the entire cardiovascular system.’ Another cell says, ‘I’m going to start the entire GI (digestive) system.’ How do they know what their job is supposed to be and what pages of the DNA they’re supposed to read? It’s an absolute miracle. It’s called cell differentiation.”
“We still have no idea (how it happens). Things don’t evolve into amazing miracles like that. There was a designer and that designer was, no doubt, Almighty God.”
On the broadcast, Dr. Lile and Roland Warren discussed other topics that confirm the fact that new life begins at conception, including the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding in vitro fertilization and the ability of doctors to do perform complex surgeries on babies on the womb.
“We are treating them as patients, diagnosing them as patients,” Dr. Lile noted. “We are doing brain surgery, spina bifida corrective surgery, laser vascular surgery, and open heart surgery… [Often], we will have a separate anesthesiologist that will start an IV in the baby and give the baby fluids, give the baby fentanyl so they don’t feel pain…”
“These babies are created in the image of God. They are my patients. If they are patients they need to be protected.”
In conclusion, Roland Warren said that hearing medical evidence like this from Dr. Lile actually shifts the burden of proof from the pro-life side to the pro-choice side.
“If you believe that life is precious (which is what pro-choice people would say in a lot of settings), then you have to be 100% certain that what is in the womb is not a life,” he said. “If you’re uncertain about when life begins, you actually should be pro-life.”
“The biblical narrative, the medical narrative, the scientific narrative, and all of it comes together to support the perspective that there is new life in the womb.”
Dr. Lile, also known as The Pro-Life Doc, passionately believes that each person is created in the image of God at the moment of conception.
“A patient is a person, no matter how small,” he said.
On the broadcast, Dr. Lile and Roland Warren discussed the question, “When does new life begin?“
The firsthand experience and expertise of Dr. Lile, who has delivered approximately 4,000 babies, left no room for doubt.
“The question is not even a philosophical question,” he said. “It is a scientific question and it is a medical question.”
Dr. Lile explained that when the DNA from the sperm and the DNA from the egg come together as one cell, that one cell is genetically unique from mom and dad and the other seven billion people on the planet. At that one cell stage, the blueprints of life are already laid out.
“That living cell will divide into two, four, eight, 16, 32, 64 cells….As adults, we [are comprised of] about 60 trillion cells. What’s unique is that our DNA, our genetics, never change. If you do a DNA test on somebody who is 90-years old, it will exactly match when they were just one cell in their mother’s womb.”
Roland Warren noted how this data contradicts a common narrative that life is constructed in the womb. That misconception, he explained, occurs when we think of a baby in the womb like the construction of a Tesla.
“When is a Tesla actually a Tesla?” he asked, rhetorically. “The reality is that a Tesla is never intrinsically a Tesla because at any point you could turn a Tesla into a toaster. It could be turned into something else… That’s why there’s human development as opposed to human construction. It’s an absolute miracle.”
“We are all created in the image of God – not on our birthdays, but at that moment of conception,” Dr. Lile noted.
That miracle of conception involves some astounding steps, both before and after the sperm and egg unite. The first sperm to get through to the egg must outswim hundreds of millions of others, “like Michael Phelps.”
“[The sperms] are all trying to get on the inside. But there is only one gold medalist,” Dr. Lile said.
Once the sperm unites with the egg, another incredible process occurs to keep the others out.
“As soon as that first sperm gets on the inside an amazing reaction happens. A shield goes up””just like the Star Trek Enterprise. That shield is called a zona pellucida.”
“At that moment, if you look with the right frequency of light, you can actually see a flash of light that occurs.”
The miraculous, and even mysterious, nature of conception continues when the DNA from the mother and father come together and cellular division begins.
“All the cells are exact copies at that point,” Dr. Lile noted. “How does one cell say, ‘I’m only going to read [certain] pages of the blueprints of life’? ‘I’m going to start the entire cardiovascular system.’ Another cell says, ‘I’m going to start the entire GI (digestive) system.’ How do they know what their job is supposed to be and what pages of the DNA they’re supposed to read? It’s an absolute miracle. It’s called cell differentiation.”
“We still have no idea (how it happens). Things don’t evolve into amazing miracles like that. There was a designer and that designer was, no doubt, Almighty God.”
On the broadcast, Dr. Lile and Roland Warren discussed other topics that confirm the fact that new life begins at conception, including the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding in vitro fertilization and the ability of doctors to do perform complex surgeries on babies on the womb.
“We are treating them as patients, diagnosing them as patients,” Dr. Lile noted. “We are doing brain surgery, spina bifida corrective surgery, laser vascular surgery, and open heart surgery… [Often], we will have a separate anesthesiologist that will start an IV in the baby and give the baby fluids, give the baby fentanyl so they don’t feel pain…”
“These babies are created in the image of God. They are my patients. If they are patients they need to be protected.”
In conclusion, Roland Warren said that hearing medical evidence like this from Dr. Lile actually shifts the burden of proof from the pro-life side to the pro-choice side.
“If you believe that life is precious (which is what pro-choice people would say in a lot of settings), then you have to be 100% certain that what is in the womb is not a life,” he said. “If you’re uncertain about when life begins, you actually should be pro-life.”
“The biblical narrative, the medical narrative, the scientific narrative, and all of it comes together to support the perspective that there is new life in the womb.”