With new abortion laws just passed in Alabama and Missouri (and previously in New York and Virginia) this question is once again in the forefront.

Is dawn day or night? Is sunset day or night? They are neither. They are states “in between” day and night. They are a little bit of both.

Perhaps a foetus is not an actual baby, but neither is it just a “mass of cells”. It is something in between. Perhaps a good way to think about this question is to think of a grapefruit or orange tree. There is fruit on the tree but not yet ripe. It will be a while before they fall from the tree naturally. They can’t yet be eaten, but neither are they “nothing”. They are fruits “in process”.

What are the legal ramifications if some intruder goes to these trees and cuts off the as yet unripened fruit? Can he claim that he is not liable for damages as he didn’t destroy real fruit – only potential fruit? I’m not a lawyer, but I would say that he was liable for the entire crop “as if” they were ripe. It was going to happen.

In Astrology, the Vedic Astrologers (and there are many Western astrologers who agree) say that life begins at conception. Yes, the Horoscope of an actual person is cast for the time of conception – from the time before there was a heart beat or even a defined form – in spite of the fact that it wasn’t a full fledged baby until 9 months later. This conception point is the beginning of life.

The reason most astrologers don’t use conception times in their calculation is because of their impracticality. How can one determine the actual moment of conception? While the parents are making love do they look at their watches and note the time? Are they in a lucid kind of state to do so? And, if they regularly make love how do they know which session produced the conception. Its almost impossible. Thus we use the moment of birth which can be easily verified.

If someone assaults a pregnant woman and she loses the child – she is alive but only the child is dead – is this murder? Well yes and no. According to Jewish law there would not be a death penalty for this. But there would be some kind of damages to be payed. If the foetus is only a “mass of cells” – why damages? I’m not sure of the secular law about this.

There are some spiritual channels who aver that “life begins even before conception”. The souls of the child to be (along with the souls of the parents) are at work creating the conditions for conception long before it actually occurs.

There are many stories (and some I’ve heard personally) of people who recover pre-natal memories under hypnosis. Apparently even in the womb the child remembers the feelings of the parents and the family atmosphere in general. So, it has a rudimentary consciousness.