WEBVTT

00:02.310 --> 00:08.370
Prof: We'll start a
little slow because I'm sure

00:08.366 --> 00:11.166
some people are coming.

00:11.170 --> 00:14.730
This--we'll continue with
abortion, we had two lectures

00:14.727 --> 00:16.767
ago we talked about abortion.

00:16.770 --> 00:20.950
The center of the abortion
debate is 'when does life

00:20.945 --> 00:25.605
begin,' and luckily that's a
question that biology can say

00:25.612 --> 00:27.252
something about.

00:27.250 --> 00:31.240
What statement is the most
common statement made on this?

00:31.240 --> 00:36.050
Not your own personal opinion
and not an educated opinion,

00:36.048 --> 00:40.518
but what do people on the
street say mostly about when

00:40.520 --> 00:41.870
life begins?

00:41.870 --> 00:43.570
What do you hear?

00:43.570 --> 00:44.990
Prof: What?

00:44.990 --> 00:46.320
Student:  At conception.

00:46.320 --> 00:52.410
Prof: At conception and--
all right, yes indeed,

00:52.407 --> 00:57.197
that's the most common sort of
thing that people say,

00:57.200 --> 01:00.100
life begins at conception.

01:00.100 --> 01:03.210
This is in the newspapers,
this is common and this is in

01:03.206 --> 01:04.106
all the media.

01:04.108 --> 01:06.978
So George Will--how many of you
heard of George Will,

01:06.980 --> 01:08.970
a famous Washington
correspondent.

01:08.968 --> 01:14.548
He's syndicated like
everywhere: "It is a

01:14.545 --> 01:19.035
biological fact,
not a theological postulate,

01:19.040 --> 01:23.780
that such life is a continuum
from conception to death."

01:23.780 --> 01:26.900
Then just before I was writing
this lecture the first time,

01:26.900 --> 01:29.560
I was scanning The New York
Times, as I always do,

01:29.560 --> 01:31.230
and there was a letter from the
editor--

01:31.230 --> 01:34.580
letter to the editor from a
pro-life writer.

01:34.580 --> 01:39.130
"It is a scientific fact,
as any basic biology text will

01:39.134 --> 01:42.554
confirm that life does begin at
conception.

01:42.550 --> 01:45.800
The fetus is a live human
being, distinct from,

01:45.799 --> 01:48.129
while dependent on,
its mother.

01:48.129 --> 01:52.259
It deserves the full protection
of its rights."

01:52.260 --> 01:54.170
That's what's common out there.

01:54.170 --> 01:58.310
Not only is it what people,
most people personally believe,

01:58.311 --> 02:02.311
but it's generally considered
to be a scientific fact.

02:02.310 --> 02:07.240
I've heard this from prolife
people and prochoice people,

02:07.242 --> 02:09.622
almost indistinguishably.

02:09.620 --> 02:13.240
The question is--you've all had
high school biology at least,

02:13.238 --> 02:15.528
how many of you had college
biology?

02:15.530 --> 02:18.570
A few of you, guess what?

02:18.568 --> 02:24.658
That isn't what--that isn't at
all what a beginning biology

02:24.658 --> 02:26.338
textbook says.

02:26.340 --> 02:27.710
What does it say?

02:27.710 --> 02:31.330
This is from--they send
professors free copies of

02:31.329 --> 02:33.509
textbooks,
so I just opened up one that

02:33.510 --> 02:36.820
they happened to send me,
and it shows something quite

02:36.816 --> 02:37.656
different.

02:37.660 --> 02:41.630
It shows life as a cycle.

02:41.629 --> 02:43.969
There's no start point here.

02:43.970 --> 02:49.870
Fertilization is one of the
events going around the cycle.

02:49.870 --> 02:53.130
This is the essence of sexual
reproduction.

02:53.128 --> 02:55.978
We also know that there's
asexual reproduction,

02:55.976 --> 02:58.386
which doesn't have this stuff
at all.

02:58.389 --> 03:03.879
The cycle is the switch between
a haploid genome,

03:03.878 --> 03:07.428
which means one copy of each
chromosome,

03:07.430 --> 03:12.770
and diploid,
when each cell has two copies

03:12.765 --> 03:15.495
of each chromosome.

03:15.500 --> 03:19.800
With sexual
reproduction--there's always

03:19.802 --> 03:25.212
some version of this one
copy/two copies cycle.

03:25.210 --> 03:28.830
When we look in detail,
this again from the same

03:28.831 --> 03:32.531
freshman, very popular,
very big selling freshman

03:32.532 --> 03:34.462
college biology text.

03:34.460 --> 03:38.540
It talks about three different
sexual lifecycles.

03:38.538 --> 03:41.368
In--the one that you're most
familiar with,

03:41.369 --> 03:42.649
which is animals.

03:42.650 --> 03:48.600
What happens is you start with
a--a multi-cellular organism,

03:48.598 --> 03:49.908
that's you.

03:49.910 --> 03:54.390
Then meiosis--the splitting of
the chromosomes so that the

03:54.389 --> 03:57.909
gametes get--
this is 2N, N being the number

03:57.906 --> 04:00.286
of chromosomes,
start from 2N,

04:00.286 --> 04:04.506
there's a process called
meiosis in which pairs split and

04:04.513 --> 04:08.743
you get cells with only one copy
of each chromosome,

04:08.740 --> 04:11.200
those are called gametes or
germ cells,

04:11.199 --> 04:14.959
and then from another
individual you get a second N

04:14.957 --> 04:17.887
and you go back to the diploid
phase.

04:17.889 --> 04:22.089
It's again, this cycling around
between one copy and two copies

04:22.093 --> 04:25.353
of the chromosomes,
meiosis and fertilization.

04:25.350 --> 04:29.740
Now in most animals it happens
that the big stage,

04:29.742 --> 04:33.952
like us, is diploid,
but that is not a universal

04:33.954 --> 04:35.394
rule at all.

04:35.389 --> 04:40.249
Here is a stage which is--are
fungi and some algae that have

04:40.247 --> 04:42.387
it the other way around.

04:42.389 --> 04:46.709
They go through the same cycle
but now the big organism is the

04:46.706 --> 04:50.246
haploid stage,
where there's only one copy of

04:50.250 --> 04:54.310
each chromosome and that's
growing in your garden,

04:54.310 --> 04:56.830
there will be a lot of stuff
like this.

04:56.829 --> 04:59.249
In most plants,
and some algae,

04:59.250 --> 05:02.960
you have a third possibility,
whereas, both are

05:02.959 --> 05:05.299
multi-cellular organisms.

05:05.300 --> 05:10.790
There's the diploid stage
multi-cellular and the haploid

05:10.793 --> 05:16.093
stage is multi-cellular,
and the cycle goes around.

05:16.088 --> 05:20.488
The basic idea is not that
there's a beginning but that

05:20.485 --> 05:21.945
life is a cycle.

05:21.949 --> 05:24.389
This is what--I don't know what
your high school textbook

05:24.387 --> 05:26.867
says--I was afraid to go look at
high school textbooks.

05:26.870 --> 05:30.490
My colleagues who read high
school textbooks are always

05:30.490 --> 05:34.310
horrified, so I didn't go lower
than a college--a standard

05:34.312 --> 05:35.722
college textbook.

05:35.720 --> 05:39.730
Again, this is not the only
mechanism of reproduction,

05:39.733 --> 05:43.673
there's of course a whole
variety of asexual means of

05:43.672 --> 05:44.962
reproduction.

05:44.959 --> 05:51.209
What kinds of things reproduce
asexually with none of this?

05:51.209 --> 05:54.629
Bacteria, yeast,
yeast that makes your bread

05:54.625 --> 05:59.145
rise, yeast that makes your
beer, yeast that ferments your

05:59.154 --> 06:02.894
wine, and yeast is fungi between
your toes.

06:02.889 --> 06:05.469
They reproduce by?

06:05.470 --> 06:08.350
What's the mechanism of their
reproduction?

06:08.350 --> 06:12.910
Budding, they bud off, mitosis.

06:12.910 --> 06:17.510
What else, what grows in your
garden that you eat many

06:17.505 --> 06:18.455
mornings?

06:18.459 --> 06:22.429
Strawberries,
how do strawberries reproduce?

06:22.430 --> 06:27.260
Oh my, you are disconnected
from nature.

06:27.259 --> 06:30.699
Strawberries--none of you have
strawberries in your garden or

06:30.699 --> 06:31.789
in your backyard?

06:31.790 --> 06:34.580
Do you know--who has a garden?

06:34.579 --> 06:35.859
Student:  I don't know
how they grow.

06:35.860 --> 06:36.820
Prof: What?

06:36.819 --> 06:38.299
Student:  I have but I
don't know how they grow.

06:38.300 --> 06:39.710
Prof: She strawberries
don't know--

06:39.709 --> 06:41.349
they have runners,
they have what's called

06:41.350 --> 06:43.380
rhizomes,
they're called runners and you

06:43.379 --> 06:46.639
have one plant and when it gets
big enough and has enough energy

06:46.636 --> 06:48.906
it sends out a runner that grows
a root,

06:48.910 --> 06:51.500
and it grows up a strawberry,
and then it doesn't matter

06:51.502 --> 06:53.342
whether the runner is eventually
cut.

06:53.339 --> 06:58.649
Lots and lots of things grow by
runners, which is again,

06:58.646 --> 07:02.406
another asexual form of
reproduction.

07:02.410 --> 07:06.670
Again, since you don't have
yards--so pricker bushes,

07:06.670 --> 07:11.260
the bane in the northeast,
how do pricker bushes grow?

07:11.259 --> 07:13.979
Runners, that's why your garden
gets just overtaken,

07:13.980 --> 07:16.520
if you don't get your clippers
out and be very brutal,

07:16.519 --> 07:19.939
your garden just is overtaken
by pricker bush;

07:19.939 --> 07:24.719
bracken is the more technical
term for that.

07:24.720 --> 07:28.330
There's a lot of stuff that
reproduces--grass,

07:28.329 --> 07:31.299
a lot of the grasses grow this
way.

07:31.300 --> 07:35.270
Parthenogenesis,
anybody know who reproduces

07:35.274 --> 07:37.314
parthenogenetically?

07:37.310 --> 07:41.040
Fish do, etc.,
there's fish,

07:41.043 --> 07:45.323
worms;
all kinds of things reproduce

07:45.322 --> 07:47.622
parthenogenetically.

07:47.620 --> 07:51.930
The idea that life begins at
conception, that life has any

07:51.932 --> 07:56.022
start point is really not what
textbooks are saying.

07:56.019 --> 07:59.329
It's saying life is a cycle,
it's repeated,

07:59.329 --> 08:01.539
organisms use different
versions of the cycle,

08:01.540 --> 08:08.470
and many organisms reproduce
asexually with no version of

08:08.473 --> 08:09.343
that.

08:09.338 --> 08:13.028
This gets a little more
interesting when you go from a

08:13.028 --> 08:16.298
freshman textbook to an upper
level textbook.

08:16.300 --> 08:20.500
A few years ago I got an old
copy of the upper level,

08:20.500 --> 08:23.810
this is Biology
241--Reproductive Biology,

08:23.812 --> 08:27.532
and I presume none of you have
taken that.

08:27.529 --> 08:30.879
Now it gets really interesting.

08:30.879 --> 08:35.659
This is the beginning of an
embryo in your grandmother,

08:35.662 --> 08:39.562
or in your grandfather,
it doesn't matter.

08:39.558 --> 08:47.088
Can you see tiny little dots
here?

08:47.090 --> 08:49.240
Maybe if we turn out the light
you can see them,

08:49.235 --> 08:51.605
but it doesn't matter,
believe me there's tiny little

08:51.609 --> 08:53.389
dots that this line is pointing
to.

08:53.389 --> 08:56.389
This is inside your
grandmother's womb,

08:56.389 --> 08:59.649
this is your mother or your
father,

08:59.649 --> 09:02.749
just remember that's your
mother or father sitting in

09:02.751 --> 09:05.071
there,
and outside your mother and

09:05.067 --> 09:06.777
father,
in the yolk sac,

09:06.784 --> 09:09.604
which you think of as just for
eating,

09:09.600 --> 09:13.520
there's an epithelial wall--an
epithelium is just a set of flat

09:13.517 --> 09:17.357
cells like a skin that bound--
organs are mostly covered

09:17.355 --> 09:19.165
around in an epithelium.

09:19.168 --> 09:23.868
Some of the cells in the
epithelium start differentiating

09:23.865 --> 09:28.885
differently than a skin cell and
they pop out into the center

09:28.894 --> 09:29.654
here.

09:29.649 --> 09:33.299
Then as development goes on,
of your mother inside your

09:33.296 --> 09:35.886
grandmother,
or your father inside your

09:35.889 --> 09:38.779
grandmother,
not inside your grandfather,

09:38.779 --> 09:41.619
these cells crawl up into the
embryo,

09:41.620 --> 09:44.820
through a tube,
and they sit in--they come to

09:44.822 --> 09:49.192
sit up here in the cells that
are going to become the rest of

09:49.187 --> 09:50.277
your gonad.

09:50.279 --> 09:53.729
Your germ cells start--When a
developmental biologist or

09:53.730 --> 09:56.240
reproductive biologist discusses
this;

09:56.240 --> 09:59.050
this is in a sense the start of
life.

09:59.048 --> 10:03.588
In your grand--in your mother
or father's embryo inside your

10:03.586 --> 10:08.196
grandmother and then more events
happen and the whole book is

10:08.201 --> 10:09.971
about those events.

10:09.970 --> 10:11.380
What are those events?

10:11.379 --> 10:14.419
Many--and so this is on Page 7,
the beginning,

10:14.423 --> 10:18.413
this is what happens in the
beginning, and when do we get to

10:18.412 --> 10:19.632
fertilization?

10:19.629 --> 10:21.049
Well here's the next one.

10:21.048 --> 10:25.508
Coitus and fertilization,
and this is on Page 201,

10:25.509 --> 10:30.969
so there's 200 pages of events
that take place in between.

10:30.970 --> 10:33.770
Fertilization is not the first
or the second,

10:33.769 --> 10:36.809
but it's the third kind of
event, even in this one chapter

10:36.808 --> 10:39.528
and its purpose is the
establishment of diploid,

10:39.529 --> 10:43.669
again referring to the cycle of
haploid diploid.

10:43.668 --> 10:46.658
Just to let you know that
fertilization is not an

10:46.663 --> 10:50.073
essential event,
it includes parthenogenetic

10:50.070 --> 10:55.330
activation as an equivalent step
that can do in the cycle as well

10:55.333 --> 10:56.983
as fertilization.

10:56.980 --> 11:00.570
The difference between asexual
reproduction and parthenogenesis

11:00.568 --> 11:03.928
is: asexual reproduction doesn't
go through a halving and a

11:03.927 --> 11:05.777
doubling of the chromosomes.

11:05.778 --> 11:08.278
In pathogenesis,
you, in fact,

11:08.283 --> 11:11.673
start with haploid cells,
haploid organism,

11:11.674 --> 11:14.954
and then there is a mechanism
for just doubling it without

11:14.946 --> 11:17.296
bringing in genes from somewhere
else.

11:17.299 --> 11:23.099
What the cell does is mitosis;
it's the normal state where

11:23.101 --> 11:25.701
cells double but then they
split.

11:25.700 --> 11:30.730
This is a doubling of the
chromosome but no split,

11:30.730 --> 11:36.070
so you go from a haploid stage
to a diploid stage.

11:36.070 --> 11:40.520
While we're on
parthenogenesis--I actually

11:40.515 --> 11:44.525
didn't know this until I read
this.

11:44.529 --> 11:47.939
It introduces--The spermatozoon
induces many remarkable changes

11:47.940 --> 11:51.350
in the oocyte at fertilization,
but it's not essential for many

11:51.350 --> 11:52.010
of them.

11:52.009 --> 11:55.519
An oocyte may be activated
parthenogenetically by a variety

11:55.517 --> 11:57.997
of bizarre stimuli such as
electric shock,

11:57.996 --> 12:00.836
exposure to various enzymes,
or to alcohol.

12:00.840 --> 12:03.630
You guys that think you're
having a big role,

12:03.626 --> 12:07.426
well just bring your electric
shockers and it'll do almost as

12:07.428 --> 12:07.998
well.

12:08.000 --> 12:11.490
They mimic whatever it is that
the sperm does and what's

12:11.490 --> 12:15.490
interesting is that the embryo,
the partheo--this is a human;

12:15.490 --> 12:19.160
this is a textbook of human
reproductive biology.

12:19.158 --> 12:21.008
It can undergo cleavage,
implantation,

12:21.005 --> 12:23.345
and development to the stage of
a beating heart,

12:23.351 --> 12:24.651
somites and forelimbs.

12:24.649 --> 12:28.909
The stage at which a lot of the
right to lifers show you,

12:28.908 --> 12:33.238
well this is a human already,
actually can happen without any

12:33.239 --> 12:35.909
intervention of a sperm
whatsoever.

12:35.908 --> 12:38.958
Eventually, in a human,
there are parthenogenetic

12:38.960 --> 12:42.430
animals and other organisms,
but in a human,

12:42.427 --> 12:46.417
the embryo, the fetus
eventually dies,

12:46.418 --> 12:51.808
but apparently it's a
deficiency in the placenta not

12:51.812 --> 12:54.142
in the fetus itself.

12:54.139 --> 12:56.039
It's quite amazing.

12:56.038 --> 12:59.828
Again, loosens up your whole
mind about what is biology is

12:59.827 --> 13:03.747
actually saying about life and
it's not saying that it has a

13:03.746 --> 13:07.596
beginning and it's certainly not
saying the beginning is at

13:07.600 --> 13:08.930
fertilization.

13:08.928 --> 13:12.528
Having started this train of
thought for myself,

13:12.528 --> 13:15.158
we've done a freshman text,
we've done an upper level text,

13:15.158 --> 13:18.588
now let's get into the research
literature.

13:18.590 --> 13:20.710
I've just underlined these.

13:20.710 --> 13:21.810
Here's a research literature.

13:21.808 --> 13:24.498
This is Science magazine
which--is one all scientists

13:24.496 --> 13:26.406
read, it has the latest,
greatest stuff.

13:26.408 --> 13:28.168
You wish you could publish in
it, and so forth.

13:28.168 --> 13:33.208
It's from 2007 and it's about
the germline which is eggs and

13:33.211 --> 13:33.981
sperms.

13:33.980 --> 13:39.340
In the early embryo cells
decide between becoming soma or

13:39.336 --> 13:40.386
germline.

13:40.389 --> 13:43.649
When I showed you the yolk sac
in your grandmother,

13:43.649 --> 13:47.039
the soma, the body,
are the cells that stay in the

13:47.043 --> 13:50.373
yolk sac and form the lining of
the yolk sac,

13:50.370 --> 13:55.200
and produce the enzymes I think
which digest the yolk.

13:55.200 --> 13:58.750
Those that migrate out become
the germline.

13:58.750 --> 14:01.640
Evolution doesn't want the
germline to go through a lot of

14:01.638 --> 14:04.828
divisions because every division
introduces the possibility of a

14:04.831 --> 14:05.491
mutation.

14:05.490 --> 14:08.800
Every time you have to copy
your chromosomes you can get

14:08.797 --> 14:09.697
into trouble.

14:09.700 --> 14:13.220
Very early on,
in fact in your grandmother,

14:13.216 --> 14:18.316
the germline separates out and
is held in abeyance for decades

14:18.322 --> 14:19.162
often.

14:19.158 --> 14:25.968
Now again, the important thing
is this constancy of the

14:25.966 --> 14:29.006
germline,
it's necessary for species

14:29.013 --> 14:31.273
continuity,
that's all that kind of stuff

14:31.267 --> 14:34.047
and here again,
all kinds of events take place.

14:34.048 --> 14:37.068
The only mention of
fertilization in this whole

14:37.066 --> 14:39.686
introduction to this special
section,

14:39.690 --> 14:41.920
this is a special section just
in this issue,

14:41.918 --> 14:50.288
is in one of the later
paragraphs.

14:50.288 --> 14:54.548
Now, I was being very pleased
with myself getting exactly the

14:54.553 --> 14:58.963
right things that I wanted to
show you and make this point,

14:58.960 --> 15:01.010
that, at all levels of
scientific discourse,

15:01.009 --> 15:04.059
life does NOT begin at
conception.

15:04.058 --> 15:09.288
Then I stepped back from it a
little bit and what do I notice?

15:09.289 --> 15:11.499
What's the logo up there?

15:11.500 --> 15:14.210
The logo is the fertile--an egg
being fertilized.

15:14.210 --> 15:16.910
I said, oh my gosh,
that contradicts everything I'm

15:16.913 --> 15:19.963
trying to say;
because it's sort of makes out

15:19.964 --> 15:24.044
that the most important thing
about this whole process is

15:24.042 --> 15:25.282
fertilization.

15:25.278 --> 15:27.528
After my initial shock,
I get over it;

15:27.528 --> 15:30.438
I look at it and say,
that's a fake.

15:30.440 --> 15:32.840
Fertilization does not look
like that,

15:32.840 --> 15:35.750
and anybody who's taken a
biology course and seen these

15:35.751 --> 15:37.531
pictures,
there's first of all a whole

15:37.532 --> 15:39.772
lot of sperms,
there isn't just one sperm

15:39.768 --> 15:42.218
sitting like that,
it's a whole lot of them.

15:42.220 --> 15:46.840
That would be a very nice trick
to get a green oocyte and a red

15:46.839 --> 15:49.749
sperm together,
and I said that's a fake

15:49.745 --> 15:50.635
picture.

15:50.639 --> 15:54.539
You're not supposed to do that
kind of fakery in science,

15:54.538 --> 15:57.088
but it turns out,
the scientists didn't do that

15:57.090 --> 15:59.170
but these journals--
this is a mass produced

15:59.168 --> 16:01.258
thing--Science sells
millions of copies all around

16:01.256 --> 16:03.356
the world,
so they have an art department.

16:03.360 --> 16:12.470
I don't know if you can see
this but that picture is made by

16:12.472 --> 16:14.792
Getty Images.

16:14.788 --> 16:18.238
Getty is one of the big--Getty
Images Visuals,

16:18.240 --> 16:19.950
Unlimited;
they're not limited,

16:19.948 --> 16:20.698
they're unlimited.

16:20.700 --> 16:23.380
This was put in not by the
scientific authors,

16:23.384 --> 16:26.734
it's not mentioned in the
article, so you're not supposed

16:26.726 --> 16:28.216
to take it seriously.

16:28.220 --> 16:31.410
And in fact,
when you go after this kind of

16:31.412 --> 16:35.822
stuff--I just looked about two
pages later--well here it is

16:35.820 --> 16:38.860
blown up so you can see that
better.

16:38.860 --> 16:43.120
There's the exact picture from
which it's come,

16:43.120 --> 16:45.760
and you can see the flatness
here, and this little thing

16:45.755 --> 16:48.155
here,
and if you go back they show

16:48.160 --> 16:51.700
you the flatness here and the
little thing here.

16:51.700 --> 16:53.990
They've shown you
exact--inadvertently,

16:53.990 --> 16:57.640
they don't mention this at all;
they show you exactly where

16:57.639 --> 16:58.869
they faked it from.

16:58.870 --> 17:04.010
What they did is they took this
image, and then took a red sperm

17:04.010 --> 17:07.360
image from somewhere else,
laid it on top,

17:07.356 --> 17:09.476
and put them on there.

17:09.480 --> 17:13.440
Yes, I was going to say
something about laying it on but

17:13.440 --> 17:15.240
I won't, you can guess.

17:15.240 --> 17:18.120
What's the moral of the story
of this last little bit?

17:18.118 --> 17:20.908
Even prestigious scientific
journals, when they're not

17:20.906 --> 17:23.536
thinking scientifically,
will lapse into the common

17:23.536 --> 17:25.766
parlance;
this is the society in which

17:25.769 --> 17:26.379
they live.

17:26.380 --> 17:29.270
The important thing about
reproduction is fertilization,

17:29.271 --> 17:34.551
that's the common thing;
it's not a scientific thing but

17:34.548 --> 17:41.858
even scientists and scientific
journals can mess that up.

17:41.858 --> 17:46.078
The whole phrasing of this
debate in terms of when does

17:46.079 --> 17:50.459
life begin is a cultural
holdover from the many centuries

17:50.455 --> 17:55.375
when there was no scientific
understanding of reproduction.

17:55.380 --> 17:56.920
You have to think,
well, when does life begin?

17:56.920 --> 18:00.500
What is the alternative to it
being a cycle from life coming

18:00.500 --> 18:02.990
from life that we now know is
the case?

18:02.990 --> 18:08.140
Well it's got to come from
something that's not alive.

18:08.140 --> 18:11.400
Then the question comes up very
naturally, if you think life

18:11.400 --> 18:13.830
comes from something not alive,
then you say,

18:13.832 --> 18:15.492
well when does life begin?

18:15.490 --> 18:20.310
What is that called when you
believe that life comes from not

18:20.307 --> 18:20.867
life?

18:20.868 --> 18:25.038
Come on you had this in high
school.

18:25.039 --> 18:26.429
This is a dead--
Student:  Spontaneous

18:26.425 --> 18:26.695
generation.

18:26.700 --> 18:30.170
Prof: Spontaneous
generation, right.

18:30.170 --> 18:34.020
When did they--do you remember
when this was shown to be not

18:34.020 --> 18:34.740
the case?

18:34.740 --> 18:37.880
Student:  Pasteur.

18:37.880 --> 18:39.870
Prof: Pasteur was the
final step in it.

18:39.868 --> 18:42.468
It actually comes earlier,
the first guy was Francesco

18:42.467 --> 18:44.057
Redi--
well first let me tell

18:44.064 --> 18:46.424
you--what are the observations
that make--

18:46.420 --> 18:50.430
that made people think that
there was spontaneous

18:50.432 --> 18:51.522
generation?

18:51.519 --> 18:54.219
Take a caterpillar and a moth.

18:54.220 --> 18:56.350
You have a caterpillar and its
one kind of organism,

18:56.348 --> 18:59.448
it crawls around,
it puts itself up into a

18:59.452 --> 19:00.902
cocoon,
and if at any time,

19:00.903 --> 19:03.243
not the very beginning and not
the very end but in the middle,

19:03.240 --> 19:06.870
you open up a cocoon what you
see is goo.

19:06.868 --> 19:11.918
The caterpillar has just sort
of decayed, just fallen apart

19:11.917 --> 19:13.047
into a goo.

19:13.048 --> 19:16.528
Then you look sometime later
and out pops this beautifully

19:16.528 --> 19:19.758
formed butterfly and it doesn't
look anything like the

19:19.762 --> 19:20.742
caterpillar.

19:20.740 --> 19:23.740
The only reasonable way of
interpreting this is that,

19:23.740 --> 19:28.090
indeed, the caterpillar died,
it put itself into a little

19:28.092 --> 19:29.882
coffin,
and it rotted,

19:29.878 --> 19:33.048
it fell apart,
but that's very nutritious and

19:33.049 --> 19:36.869
out of this nutrition somehow
came the butterfly,

19:36.868 --> 19:42.398
spontaneous generation and that
was what was believed about

19:42.402 --> 19:43.072
that.

19:43.068 --> 19:45.798
You take rotting meat,
where do you find fly's coming

19:45.798 --> 19:48.158
out of--maggots,
where do you find maggots?

19:48.160 --> 19:49.790
Rotting meat,
rotting food,

19:49.785 --> 19:53.215
so you do an experiment,
you go around and you find some

19:53.221 --> 19:54.911
road kill or something.

19:54.910 --> 19:59.670
They didn't really have cars
back then but--this is all late

19:59.665 --> 20:02.805
1600s, 1700s it changes at that
time.

20:02.808 --> 20:06.098
They take a dead animal and
maggots come out of it.

20:06.098 --> 20:08.378
Well what it is,
you can take the dead meat that

20:08.377 --> 20:11.157
you find around,
and put it in a jar and close

20:11.164 --> 20:13.394
it up,
and, if you haven't actually

20:13.392 --> 20:16.622
killed it very fresh,
out come the maggots,

20:16.622 --> 20:20.702
and you haven't let any maggots
crawl into it.

20:20.700 --> 20:22.970
Where do fish come from?

20:22.970 --> 20:25.630
Well, shallow,
most people who fish a lot know

20:25.628 --> 20:29.058
they come from shallow water
mostly and they grow up in the

20:29.057 --> 20:31.537
reeds so the fish come from the
reeds.

20:31.538 --> 20:33.718
Then you get a little
imaginative about it,

20:33.720 --> 20:36.970
and if you read the literature
from this era,

20:36.970 --> 20:39.510
which I haven't,
but there's a lot of books that

20:39.506 --> 20:41.446
do and tell you the juicy
tidbits.

20:41.450 --> 20:44.430
It is believed that it was
possible to create mice by

20:44.434 --> 20:47.884
putting a dirty shirt and a few
grains of wheat into a sealed

20:47.880 --> 20:50.120
jar and letting it sit for 21
days.

20:50.118 --> 20:53.728
That scientifically tells you
the gestation period of a mouse

20:53.730 --> 20:56.560
is 21 days when it's made from a
dirty shirt.

20:56.558 --> 21:00.368
I think some of you
undergraduates probably know

21:00.373 --> 21:02.243
that from experience.

21:02.240 --> 21:06.160
As we'll see in a little bit,
human life was presumed to come

21:06.160 --> 21:09.300
from menstrual blood,
which is also dead and as a

21:09.296 --> 21:11.906
sort of coagulation kind of
process.

21:11.910 --> 21:14.150
I'll show you what that was
about.

21:14.150 --> 21:18.620
In everything from an insect to
a human,

21:18.618 --> 21:23.098
spontaneous generation was the
most obvious interpretation of

21:23.101 --> 21:27.061
what you could observe for many
hundreds of years,

21:27.058 --> 21:31.318
until the experimental
techniques really took over and

21:31.316 --> 21:34.766
people started showing that was
not true.

21:34.769 --> 21:40.299
The first real break in this
was Francesco Redi in about

21:40.298 --> 21:46.428
1668, who studied butterflies
and he did it very carefully.

21:46.430 --> 21:48.700
They hadn't really used
scalpels before,

21:48.700 --> 21:52.530
and so if you pull apart a
cocoon without a really nice

21:52.526 --> 21:56.126
sharp knife,
you get more mush--you get mush

21:56.130 --> 21:57.360
at all stages.

21:57.358 --> 21:59.458
He used a scalpel,
cut it apart,

21:59.459 --> 22:01.829
and you could see that early
on,

22:01.828 --> 22:06.538
that actually inside the
caterpillar you could see the

22:06.537 --> 22:10.177
rudiments of the adult moth
happening,

22:10.180 --> 22:12.090
and then he could watch the
development inside the

22:12.085 --> 22:12.625
caterpillar.

22:12.630 --> 22:16.810
That was stunning to the world
when he started talking about

22:16.805 --> 22:20.905
this to scientific societies:
that a moth did not come from

22:20.909 --> 22:24.659
the rotting caterpillar but came
from the cells--

22:24.660 --> 22:28.370
they didn't have the idea of
cells back then but came from

22:28.365 --> 22:30.765
the body of the caterpillar
itself.

22:30.769 --> 22:33.629
Then Spallanzani,
when I went to high school,

22:33.630 --> 22:36.630
Spalanzani was the hero--I
don't know why instead of Redi,

22:36.630 --> 22:40.050
and he did the next step of it,
and that was the next century.

22:40.048 --> 22:44.788
He worked around the 1750s,
and finally Louis Pasteur

22:44.786 --> 22:49.336
showed that it was true also for
microorganisms.

22:49.338 --> 22:52.648
That was what Pasteur put the
final nail in the coffin,

22:52.651 --> 22:55.231
not only animals,
plants, insects which are

22:55.227 --> 22:57.677
animals, but finally
microorganisms.

22:57.680 --> 23:03.180
By the later 1800s is when this
idea of spontaneous generation

23:03.175 --> 23:06.325
for everything alive
disappeared.

23:06.328 --> 23:09.318
The phrase, which
was--originated much earlier but

23:09.319 --> 23:12.799
not proven, was omnia ex
ova, everything comes from

23:12.798 --> 23:13.468
an egg.

23:13.470 --> 23:20.030
That there's always some sort
of a cycle of generation.

23:20.028 --> 23:26.268
We've known for about 250 years
that there is no spontaneous

23:26.268 --> 23:31.598
generation that life is a cycle,
and in the cycle you can't

23:31.597 --> 23:35.807
point to a beginning,
so it's very hard--it's a sign

23:35.806 --> 23:41.146
of--there's just the persistence
of cultural ideas that the

23:41.154 --> 23:45.124
culture somehow hasn't caught
onto that.

23:45.118 --> 23:48.858
Now more educated people,
when discussing this in more

23:48.855 --> 23:51.345
detail,
understand that it's a cycle

23:51.346 --> 23:54.276
but they decide that
fertilization is the final

23:54.282 --> 23:56.492
genetic--
sets the final genetic

23:56.487 --> 24:00.277
constitution of the fetus and
therefore we can legitimately

24:00.277 --> 24:04.187
say--
point to that as the origin

24:04.190 --> 24:05.070
point.

24:05.069 --> 24:07.659
Of course that's not true.

24:07.660 --> 24:10.600
Now that we know in great
detail.

24:10.598 --> 24:20.258
I don't want to--this is not a
course in reproductive biology

24:20.256 --> 24:28.786
but somewhere I've got--
actually at the time of--I'll

24:28.785 --> 24:32.965
talk about this later.

24:32.970 --> 24:42.340
I don't know why this is going
slowly.

24:42.338 --> 24:53.438
At the time of fertilization
the nucleus of the egg is still

24:53.438 --> 24:55.318
diploid.

24:55.318 --> 24:59.988
It's only after fertilization
and sometime later,

24:59.990 --> 25:04.860
that the female nucleus goes
through its final division and

25:04.855 --> 25:10.055
that's random which chromosomes
are going to be included in the

25:10.058 --> 25:13.498
embryo and which chromosomes are
not.

25:13.500 --> 25:16.450
The final--part of the
step--one of the steps of the

25:16.452 --> 25:19.812
final genetic constitution
happens after fertilization,

25:19.808 --> 25:22.578
if you again define
fertilization as the entry of

25:22.577 --> 25:23.267
the sperm.

25:23.269 --> 25:26.869
And then even later,
the female has two Xs,

25:26.873 --> 25:31.423
but in every cell only one X is
going to be active.

25:31.420 --> 25:34.950
Again, at a later stage,
in fact way after this

25:34.948 --> 25:38.858
multi-cellular division has
already taken place,

25:38.858 --> 25:43.348
in each cell one of the Xs gets
inactivated and basically

25:43.346 --> 25:46.146
crumples up and gets thrown
away.

25:46.150 --> 25:50.620
The final genetic constitution
is not set until a good bit of

25:50.617 --> 25:52.627
time after fertilization.

25:52.630 --> 25:55.710
We can see this in Calico cats.

25:55.710 --> 25:58.590
Calico cats have these sorts of
biggish black patches and

25:58.592 --> 25:59.882
biggish orange patches.

25:59.880 --> 26:04.480
We don't have that with our
hair, our hair is usually all

26:04.479 --> 26:08.839
one color until it turns gray,
but in Calico cats what you're

26:08.843 --> 26:11.383
seeing is at a certain point in
development,

26:11.380 --> 26:14.240
and you can count the number of
patches so you know how many

26:14.244 --> 26:16.854
cells this comes from,
in one cell there will be two

26:16.849 --> 26:17.569
sets of genes.

26:17.568 --> 26:21.038
One which will have the melanin
gene to make melanin and make it

26:21.035 --> 26:23.405
black,
and one will miss that and make

26:23.407 --> 26:26.927
an orange patch,
and in this cell the gene for

26:26.925 --> 26:30.435
orange turns off and so you get
a black--

26:30.440 --> 26:32.360
the chromosome that has the
orange--

26:32.358 --> 26:35.768
the whole chromosome is turned
off and you get a black patch,

26:35.769 --> 26:38.699
and in this one,
the one for melanin gets turned

26:38.700 --> 26:40.820
off and you get an orange patch.

26:40.818 --> 26:45.308
The number of patches tells you
at what cell stage this process

26:45.313 --> 26:49.813
happened because each of those
patches are the descendants of a

26:49.806 --> 26:53.136
single cell in a somewhat
advanced embryo.

26:53.140 --> 27:00.400
The number of genetic things
that happen after fertilization

27:00.398 --> 27:03.228
is quite significant.

27:03.230 --> 27:09.410
Even moderately sophisticated
things that educated people

27:09.412 --> 27:15.822
believe about development and
when it begins are just plain

27:15.815 --> 27:16.915
wrong.

27:16.920 --> 27:23.080
The only scientific response to
the question of when life begins

27:23.082 --> 27:25.432
is, when does one say?

27:25.430 --> 27:29.820
Well four billion years ago,
when the first cell in some

27:29.824 --> 27:33.344
slime of some sea somewhere or
something,

27:33.338 --> 27:37.808
life began and since then cells
have replicated cells.

27:37.808 --> 27:41.538
In a sense, since every cell in
your body is the result of a

27:41.538 --> 27:44.908
split of some prior cell,
in a sense every cell in your

27:44.910 --> 27:47.340
body has been alive for four
billion years.

27:47.338 --> 27:56.148
There's never been anything
dead in the past of that.

27:56.150 --> 27:59.940
There's really very more
interesting things about

27:59.940 --> 28:03.100
development if I can get this to
work.

28:03.099 --> 28:07.869


28:07.868 --> 28:16.408
Development is a very,
very chancy operation there,

28:16.407 --> 28:21.187
so this is the germ cells.

28:21.190 --> 28:24.280
This is in a female but
everything I'm saying about a

28:24.277 --> 28:25.877
female happens in a male.

28:25.880 --> 28:31.780
What happens is from conception
this is the number of germ cells

28:31.778 --> 28:37.958
that they can count and they get
up to seven million germ cells.

28:37.960 --> 28:40.650
Then, again,
before birth,

28:40.646 --> 28:42.686
they start dying.

28:42.690 --> 28:44.800
For instance,
in a woman, most of the class

28:44.797 --> 28:47.677
is female,
you're born with this number of

28:47.678 --> 28:51.018
potential eggs--
I'm sorry you've developed this

28:51.019 --> 28:53.809
many eggs,
than most of them die right

28:53.805 --> 28:57.875
away, and then as gestation
continues more of them die at

28:57.882 --> 29:01.392
birth,
then they keep dying and by the

29:01.393 --> 29:06.603
time you're sexually mature
there's only a very few left.

29:06.598 --> 29:09.128
We used to believe,
and maybe still believe,

29:09.130 --> 29:12.560
that that's all the eggs you're
ever going to have and a similar

29:12.557 --> 29:14.567
sort of thing happens with
sperms,

29:14.569 --> 29:15.979
not quite the same.

29:15.980 --> 29:20.740
There's now recent research
that seems to show that there

29:20.736 --> 29:24.286
are some stem cells,
the kind of cells that

29:24.286 --> 29:27.186
originally produced all these
oocytes,

29:27.190 --> 29:28.950
that there are some stem cells
that hang around.

29:28.950 --> 29:31.810
Then, in fact,
after this period you can make,

29:31.814 --> 29:33.664
females can make more eggs.

29:33.660 --> 29:35.790
For the artificial
fertilization,

29:35.788 --> 29:39.248
artificial reproduction
clinics, this is now a really

29:39.247 --> 29:40.907
hot area of research.

29:40.910 --> 29:42.380
Can we find those stem cells?

29:42.380 --> 29:50.710
For infertile women can we get
them to now make egg cells

29:50.710 --> 29:51.900
later?

29:51.900 --> 29:57.990
That's one set of a real
decrease in the potential.

29:57.990 --> 30:02.740
You start with seven million
potential eggs but you'll

30:02.738 --> 30:06.858
ovulate like 400 eggs during a
woman's life.

30:06.858 --> 30:09.058
This is what ovulation looks
like.

30:09.058 --> 30:11.808
This is an ovary,
a proper thing,

30:11.806 --> 30:16.696
and this is the egg that's
coming out and this guy is--

30:16.700 --> 30:21.850
this doctor I guess is trying
to extract the egg for someone,

30:21.848 --> 30:25.518
either experimental or in
vitro fertilization kind of

30:25.523 --> 30:28.953
procedure where they can take
the egg and inject it,

30:28.950 --> 30:32.130
fertilize it externally,
inject it back into the female,

30:32.130 --> 30:39.810
and all kinds of wonderful
things can happen.

30:39.808 --> 30:47.418
Now, after fertilization,
this winnowing of--continues

30:47.416 --> 30:49.566
very largely.

30:49.569 --> 30:51.259
There's a lot of genetic death.

30:51.259 --> 30:53.659
Now you have your
fertilization,

30:53.664 --> 30:58.164
the early events of really
setting the genetic constitution

30:58.164 --> 31:01.894
have taken place,
and often they don't work.

31:01.890 --> 31:05.590
It turns out that from
fertilization,

31:05.592 --> 31:11.972
in the next few weeks something
like 80% of conceptuses die.

31:11.970 --> 31:13.970
It's a quite striking
phenomenon.

31:13.970 --> 31:19.110
It's called pregnancy wastage
and humans have it more than

31:19.105 --> 31:23.065
other animals and we don't
understand why.

31:23.068 --> 31:27.378
All mammals have this same
process but it's really extreme

31:27.378 --> 31:31.608
in humans and there's nothing
but theories about why this

31:31.612 --> 31:32.522
happens.

31:32.519 --> 31:36.819
It's mostly genetic death,
so I told you that you start

31:36.817 --> 31:40.107
with a diploid cell,
the germ cell that's crawling

31:40.112 --> 31:42.792
out of the sac,
and it has two copies of each

31:42.787 --> 31:43.537
chromosome.

31:43.538 --> 31:46.288
The chromosome unfolded is a
huge thing,

31:46.288 --> 31:49.738
and it has to fold itself up,
it has to pair,

31:49.740 --> 31:54.840
they have to all the--26 pairs
have to pair and then they have

31:54.836 --> 31:56.336
to split nicely.

31:56.338 --> 32:00.198
Well that is a very complicated
process that frequently does not

32:00.201 --> 32:00.631
work.

32:00.630 --> 32:04.640
What you end up with is,
instead of one copy going each

32:04.644 --> 32:07.784
way;
you get two copies in this say

32:07.778 --> 32:12.168
egg, or this sperm and no copy
in the other one.

32:12.170 --> 32:17.290
Then as events go on,
if you have two copies here,

32:17.288 --> 32:20.518
and it gets fertilized by a
sperm then you have three copies

32:20.523 --> 32:23.213
and that's lethal for almost
every chromosome,

32:23.210 --> 32:26.280
and if you have no copies and
it gets fertilized by a sperm

32:26.275 --> 32:28.915
you get one copy and that's
lethal for almost every

32:28.916 --> 32:29.706
chromosome.

32:29.710 --> 32:33.800
The only chromosome for which
there isn't lethality is the

32:33.803 --> 32:38.043
Down syndrome chromosome where
you can--I think it's 23 .

32:38.038 --> 32:42.848
You can survive with three
copies of that and that's Down

32:42.854 --> 32:43.804
syndrome.

32:43.798 --> 32:47.958
You know the frequency of Down
syndrome, one in however many

32:47.960 --> 32:49.230
thousand it is .

32:49.230 --> 32:51.860
For every Triplo,
that's called Triplo because

32:51.863 --> 32:55.143
you have three copies of that
chromosome, there's a null,

32:55.138 --> 32:56.308
you get no copy.

32:56.308 --> 32:58.548
You get just the one from the
sperm.

32:58.548 --> 33:00.958
Where if it's the sperm that
has this problem,

33:00.964 --> 33:02.634
you get the one from the egg.

33:02.630 --> 33:05.830
That dies and every other
chromosome dies.

33:05.828 --> 33:08.678
There's one other chromosome
where there's some viability.

33:08.680 --> 33:12.470
You take the frequency of Down
syndrome, you double it for that

33:12.470 --> 33:14.060
chromosome for the null.

33:14.058 --> 33:17.018
Then you multiply it by the 46
chromosomes--

33:17.019 --> 33:19.899
23 pairs of chromosomes that
there are and you get a number

33:19.900 --> 33:22.330
that just from this process,
which is called

33:22.333 --> 33:24.833
non-disjunction,
what the death rate of the

33:24.834 --> 33:28.614
oocyte--
of the fertilized eggs is.

33:28.608 --> 33:31.718
Then there's all kinds of other
genetic problems which I won't

33:31.720 --> 33:32.230
go into.

33:32.230 --> 33:35.650
The experimentally observed,
the empirically observed thing

33:35.653 --> 33:37.723
is that the actual number is
78%.

33:37.720 --> 33:45.260
I say 80% but if you read the
paper its 78% of fertilized

33:45.263 --> 33:52.273
conceptus' than die very rapidly
of genetic death.

33:52.269 --> 33:54.619
The mother doesn't even know
that she is pregnant because

33:54.624 --> 33:56.984
there's--she doesn't know
anything in the first couple of

33:56.979 --> 33:57.399
weeks.

33:57.400 --> 34:02.780
Her period may be a little bit
delayed, maybe not delayed at

34:02.781 --> 34:03.331
all.

34:03.329 --> 34:06.509


34:06.509 --> 34:10.349
You get really interesting
legal and religious

34:10.353 --> 34:11.723
complications.

34:11.719 --> 34:17.139


34:17.139 --> 34:19.189
Well, there's some theology
here which you can ask me about

34:19.193 --> 34:21.543
later if you want to know,
but standard Christians are

34:21.543 --> 34:24.243
supposed to believe that
resurrection is in the flesh.

34:24.239 --> 34:30.849
You come back in pretty much
the same state that you died in.

34:30.849 --> 34:34.339
if 80%--If you believe that
then--if you add to that that

34:34.340 --> 34:37.940
life begins at conception,
that means at the fertilized

34:37.938 --> 34:40.938
egg, then that means that 80% of
the embryos--

34:40.940 --> 34:44.550
of the resurrected bodies in
heaven are going to be in a test

34:44.547 --> 34:47.727
tube,
they're just a few cells big.

34:47.730 --> 34:51.850
So, it gets into very serious
kinds of religious

34:51.847 --> 34:53.247
complications.

34:53.250 --> 35:00.090
It also gets into legal
complications;

35:00.090 --> 35:02.940
I can't remember what state it
is.

35:02.940 --> 35:05.090
A woman got pulled over,
so this state--

35:05.090 --> 35:07.380
she was on a highway and in an
HOV lane,

35:07.380 --> 35:09.860
a high occupancy vehicle lane,
where you're supposed to have

35:09.855 --> 35:11.235
at least two people in the car.

35:11.239 --> 35:13.979
She was pulled over by the cop
because it was just her,

35:13.978 --> 35:16.158
and the cop started writing her
a ticket.

35:16.159 --> 35:19.079
She says, 'No,
no I'm pregnant and so there's

35:19.083 --> 35:23.073
two of us in this car,' and it
became a serious kind of court

35:23.070 --> 35:23.670
case.

35:23.670 --> 35:28.010
If, legally,
one decides that an embryo or a

35:28.010 --> 35:33.160
fetus is a person from the
moment of conception,

35:33.159 --> 35:38.409
then every time a woman doesn't
have a baby,

35:38.409 --> 35:42.259
or she drives,
the police are going to have to

35:42.255 --> 35:46.355
carry around pregnancy tests and
examine this.

35:46.360 --> 35:50.610
It's--the conclusion,
not the conclusion but--Another

35:50.612 --> 35:55.772
point about this--Anybody knows
roughly how long it takes to get

35:55.766 --> 35:58.216
pregnant if you're trying?

35:58.219 --> 35:59.589
Five months.

35:59.590 --> 36:03.910
Does that tie up with anything
I just said?

36:03.909 --> 36:08.759
If 80% of conceptuses die,
that's 4 out of 5.

36:08.760 --> 36:12.250
If it takes five months to get
pregnant, what happens in the

36:12.246 --> 36:13.426
other four months?

36:13.429 --> 36:16.609
Well those are the four months
that you on average did not get

36:16.614 --> 36:17.194
pregnant.

36:17.190 --> 36:20.280
Though this is not proven,
but the numbers work out that

36:20.284 --> 36:23.214
there's really no other
reasonable interpretation.

36:23.210 --> 36:26.130
When a woman is having regular
sex without protection,

36:26.130 --> 36:28.770
trying or not trying to get
pregnant,

36:28.768 --> 36:32.988
she gets pregnant every month,
but four out of the five months

36:32.989 --> 36:34.939
the fetus--
the conceptus,

36:34.943 --> 36:38.863
dies early--the fetus dies
early and she doesn't even

36:38.858 --> 36:41.568
really necessarily know about
it.

36:41.570 --> 36:46.040
Then in the fifth month,
on average, out comes a fetus.

36:46.039 --> 36:50.839
Again, legally and religiously,
that if one--

36:50.840 --> 36:55.950
decides for themselves that
life begins at conception and a

36:55.952 --> 37:00.722
woman is having sex,
that means every month a human

37:00.724 --> 37:02.194
being has died.

37:02.190 --> 37:04.910
There has to be a death
certificate.

37:04.909 --> 37:07.859
There may have to be an
inquest, why did this fetus die,

37:07.856 --> 37:11.016
did the mother drink alcohol or
do something that might have

37:11.016 --> 37:12.246
caused that to die?

37:12.250 --> 37:18.010
Is she causing the death of
this full human being?

37:18.010 --> 37:21.010
Religiously you would have to
have a burial,

37:21.005 --> 37:24.315
a memorial mass;
you would have to do all the

37:24.320 --> 37:27.190
religious things that attend to
death.

37:27.190 --> 37:32.710
The fact, that's not widely
appreciated, that 80% of

37:32.706 --> 37:39.406
conceptus' die genetically sits
uneasily with an idea that life

37:39.414 --> 37:42.124
begins at conception.

37:42.119 --> 37:47.919


37:47.920 --> 37:53.060
We're talking about the
chanciness of the reproduction.

37:53.059 --> 37:56.459
We saw, that out of all these
eggs that are started,

37:56.460 --> 38:01.330
so many die before you're born,
and then even those that get

38:01.333 --> 38:03.853
fertilized,
not many of them get fertilized

38:03.853 --> 38:06.143
because most people aren't
having sex all the time.

38:06.139 --> 38:08.789
You don't have 400--So,
there are 400 eggs that you

38:08.786 --> 38:11.426
ovulate and only a small
fraction of those will get

38:11.434 --> 38:14.244
fertilized no matter what your
sex life is like,

38:14.239 --> 38:15.699
so there's a big death there.

38:15.699 --> 38:19.089
Of those that do get
fertilized, 80% of them die,

38:19.090 --> 38:20.590
and then of course as you're
well aware from this course,

38:20.590 --> 38:25.020
once a child is born up until
very modern times of medicine,

38:25.018 --> 38:29.248
something like a third of the
kids died as infants or

38:29.253 --> 38:31.863
children,
so it's a very,

38:31.855 --> 38:38.025
very chancy procedure and
there's elimination at all kinds

38:38.030 --> 38:39.440
of stages.

38:39.440 --> 38:44.230
Okay so I sort of hit you over
the head with idea of life as a

38:44.230 --> 38:49.100
cycle, and that is of course the
only scientific way to look at

38:49.099 --> 38:49.649
it.

38:49.650 --> 38:51.480
When does a cycle begin?

38:51.480 --> 38:53.670
Can you even say something like
that?

38:53.670 --> 38:57.050
Well sometimes it's necessary
to arbitrarily put a beginning

38:57.050 --> 38:57.910
to the cycle.

38:57.909 --> 39:00.719
One of the most common cycles
is the seasons,

39:00.715 --> 39:01.605
is the year.

39:01.610 --> 39:04.790
The year is a cycle,
it gets warm and then it gets

39:04.791 --> 39:08.631
cold, and different cultures
choose different times to start

39:08.625 --> 39:09.465
the year.

39:09.469 --> 39:12.389
In our culture,
it's January 1,

39:12.393 --> 39:14.933
and why is it January 1?

39:14.929 --> 39:17.629
It's close to the winter
solstice, the lowest point of

39:17.634 --> 39:20.134
the sun, then the sun starts
coming up after that,

39:20.134 --> 39:21.414
which is December 22.

39:21.409 --> 39:24.009
Well the calendars weren't very
good and they didn't it quite

39:24.010 --> 39:25.920
right,
Christmas and New Years,

39:25.920 --> 39:28.610
and December 22--
or 21st are supposed to all be

39:28.612 --> 39:31.632
the same day,
but the calendars were not good

39:31.628 --> 39:32.998
enough to do that.

39:33.000 --> 39:35.740
The Romans put it at the Ides
of March, you remember Julius

39:35.739 --> 39:38.429
Caesar getting killed then,
and I just read the history of

39:38.434 --> 39:38.864
that.

39:38.860 --> 39:42.390
They changed their calendar
many times but during most of

39:42.394 --> 39:46.124
their period it was the Ides of
March, which is March 15.

39:46.119 --> 39:48.339
Chinese put their New Year in
February;

39:48.340 --> 39:50.920
they have lunar calendars so it
rolls around a little bit.

39:50.920 --> 39:54.350
Jewish New Year is in September
and then that's a lunar calendar

39:54.349 --> 39:56.309
so that rolls around a little
bit.

39:56.309 --> 40:01.649
Every culture decides how it
wants to set the beginning of

40:01.648 --> 40:02.678
the year.

40:02.679 --> 40:05.079
It's conventional,
it's not a scientific

40:05.076 --> 40:08.636
statement, and it's whatever any
of the culture decides.

40:08.639 --> 40:10.509
Similarly, with when does life
begin?

40:10.510 --> 40:17.230
Different cultures have decided
different start points for this

40:17.233 --> 40:18.973
cycle of life.

40:18.969 --> 40:23.379
One of the common ones is that
life only begins after the worst

40:23.378 --> 40:25.438
period of infant mortality.

40:25.440 --> 40:28.170
There are many emotional
economic legal reasons that you

40:28.170 --> 40:31.300
really don't want to consider
someone a human until they've--

40:31.300 --> 40:37.780
you're somewhat sure that the
infant is going to stay alive.

40:37.780 --> 40:40.500
Among the Fulani of West
Africa, Nigeria,

40:40.500 --> 40:44.450
an infant becomes a person and
it's given a name seven days

40:44.454 --> 40:48.074
after birth because that's the
most extreme period.

40:48.070 --> 40:51.930
The Navajo, in America,
don't consider the child is

40:51.925 --> 40:54.895
alive,
again for this period of infant

40:54.900 --> 40:57.150
death,
and after delivery it's kept in

40:57.150 --> 41:00.100
a cradle board as a kind of an
extension of pregnancy.

41:00.099 --> 41:03.629
It comes out,
it's put in a cradleboard and

41:03.626 --> 41:08.666
that's considered the mother is
still pregnant with the baby,

41:08.666 --> 41:10.846
and this is very nice.

41:10.849 --> 41:15.119
When the child laughs for the
first time then it's considered

41:15.121 --> 41:17.901
to be a human being and to be
alive,

41:17.900 --> 41:22.920
and then they have a big
ceremony to mark this child's

41:22.920 --> 41:23.680
birth.

41:23.679 --> 41:26.189
In some cases,
that you've read about,

41:26.188 --> 41:28.018
birth happens at puberty.

41:28.018 --> 41:31.788
In some of the New Guinea
tribes, the infant stays with

41:31.793 --> 41:35.273
the women until puberty,
and even boys are considered to

41:35.273 --> 41:38.183
be women,
they're just female boys and

41:38.175 --> 41:40.675
girls are not differentiated.

41:40.679 --> 41:45.439
At puberty, the males steal the
boy away and they have a birth

41:45.440 --> 41:46.300
ceremony.

41:46.300 --> 41:52.170
You remember reading about this
in New Guinea.

41:52.170 --> 41:55.970
Upon becoming a mother even
because it's so--

41:55.969 --> 41:59.159
in traditional China,
which means up until the

41:59.164 --> 42:02.724
Communist revolution,
if not later,

42:02.722 --> 42:07.142
a woman has sort of two lives.

42:07.139 --> 42:09.259
As you may remember from one of
your readings,

42:09.264 --> 42:11.584
that often a woman,
a girl child is not even given

42:11.579 --> 42:13.069
a name;
number one girl,

42:13.065 --> 42:15.115
number two girl,
number three girl,

42:15.119 --> 42:18.079
they don't even get a name and
they have sort of a

42:18.081 --> 42:19.351
quasi-existence.

42:19.349 --> 42:21.719
In this--these parts of Chinese
culture,

42:21.719 --> 42:24.739
a mother is considered to start
her life all over again at the

42:24.740 --> 42:27.520
birth of her first son,
not her daughter but the birth

42:27.516 --> 42:28.406
of her first son.

42:28.409 --> 42:32.879
The mother takes a new name at
this time and she has a--

42:32.880 --> 42:34.820
she'll, by that time have a
family name,

42:34.820 --> 42:37.900
but her son is never allowed to
learn what the name of her

42:37.902 --> 42:40.092
prior--
previous life was.

42:40.090 --> 42:44.790
For all intents and purposes
her life begins at the birth of

42:44.793 --> 42:46.073
her first son.

42:46.070 --> 42:47.800
You read the article about the
Egyptian woman;

42:47.800 --> 42:49.650
do you remember what her name
was?

42:49.650 --> 42:51.540
Om Gad, and that means?

42:51.539 --> 42:55.459
Mother of Gad,
so again, she takes the name

42:55.460 --> 42:59.940
which--she has a whole life
that's starting anew,

42:59.943 --> 43:05.363
in a sense, when she has the
first son, mother of Gad.

43:05.360 --> 43:10.230
The idea is that different
cultures have very different

43:10.233 --> 43:12.763
takes on when life begins.

43:12.760 --> 43:16.170
Since it's a cycle and it's
arbitrary, cultures have a

43:16.168 --> 43:19.708
perfect right to choose whatever
point they want for the

43:19.708 --> 43:21.508
beginning of this cycle.

43:21.510 --> 43:24.280
Even within a culture,
and I'm talking about the

43:24.277 --> 43:28.367
culture of my friends,
who are largely medical people,

43:28.367 --> 43:33.097
they all have very strong ideas
about when life begins.

43:33.099 --> 43:37.879


43:37.880 --> 43:40.440
The obstetricians and
gynecologists,

43:40.440 --> 43:43.740
because the vast majority of
fertilizations do not result in

43:43.735 --> 43:46.335
a fetus,
and the mother doesn't show any

43:46.340 --> 43:48.060
signs of it,
the mother doesn't know,

43:48.057 --> 43:51.237
there's no change in her body,
you can't test anything about

43:51.237 --> 43:53.867
the body,
they consider implantation,

43:53.873 --> 43:57.633
where the early embryo sits
into the uterine wall and at

43:57.628 --> 44:00.768
that point there's hormonal
signals going--

44:00.768 --> 44:03.908
bouncing back and forth between
the fetus and the maternal one.

44:03.909 --> 44:09.259
At that point the mother's body
starts changing and so they

44:09.257 --> 44:12.207
consider that the begin point.

44:12.210 --> 44:15.040
When they say 'you're pregnant'
they're not talking about

44:15.036 --> 44:17.606
fertilization they're talking
about implantation.

44:17.610 --> 44:19.910
This has caused lots of debate.

44:19.909 --> 44:22.809
Depending on where you define
this some--

44:22.809 --> 44:26.019
like birth control pills and
various devices are supposed to

44:26.016 --> 44:28.786
work after fertilization but
before implantation.

44:28.789 --> 44:31.099
If you ask someone who's
talking about beginning of life

44:31.099 --> 44:32.989
at fertilization,
they say that's abortion.

44:32.989 --> 44:36.279
If you're talking with
something about the beginning of

44:36.277 --> 44:39.137
life is at implantation,
that's not abortion.

44:39.139 --> 44:43.719
This is almost never put out
when people are arguing fiercely

44:43.717 --> 44:46.917
about these things,
that they're just using

44:46.922 --> 44:50.512
different definitions of when
things begin.

44:50.510 --> 44:54.160
Another very standard one,
very important in Western

44:54.164 --> 44:56.604
history, is the ability to move.

44:56.599 --> 44:59.249
Back then, starting back from
Aristotle,

44:59.250 --> 45:03.230
the difference between dead and
alive was whether something had

45:03.231 --> 45:06.571
the power of motion and that was
called animation.

45:06.570 --> 45:08.850
When you move you're animated,
like a cartoon,

45:08.849 --> 45:12.409
a cartoon is a fixed image in a
comic book or something,

45:12.409 --> 45:16.589
then you have animated
cartoons, and that's where they

45:16.585 --> 45:17.685
move around.

45:17.690 --> 45:20.530
You've probably heard 'The
Quick and the Dead'?

45:20.530 --> 45:23.700
Quick referring to movable as a
famous book, The Quick and

45:23.699 --> 45:25.549
the Dead,
and it's a very common

45:25.547 --> 45:26.337
expression.

45:26.340 --> 45:32.620
That you're either dead or you
have the power to move.

45:32.619 --> 45:32.799
St.

45:32.798 --> 45:35.848
Thomas Aquinas tied together,
it actually comes from

45:35.849 --> 45:38.959
Aristotle and we'll go back to
that in a minute,

45:38.960 --> 45:42.780
tied, in Catholic theology,
the ability to move with

45:42.779 --> 45:46.149
animation being alive and that
happens at--

45:46.150 --> 45:52.540
we now call it quickening,
when the mother can feel the

45:52.543 --> 45:55.153
fetus start to kick.

45:55.150 --> 45:59.530
That's another way so you can
have--when the embryo plants,

45:59.527 --> 46:02.017
when the embryo starts to move.

46:02.018 --> 46:06.658
The neonatologists are very
interested in fetal viability.

46:06.659 --> 46:09.379
Can the fetus stay alive
outside the mother?

46:09.380 --> 46:13.380
They argue that this is a sign
that it's an independent being,

46:13.380 --> 46:16.070
because it can live outside the
mother.

46:16.070 --> 46:19.120
That turns out to be,
the most delicate thing is,

46:19.115 --> 46:21.015
when the lungs can function.

46:21.018 --> 46:24.588
A fetus or a baby can live
outside the mother as long as

46:24.594 --> 46:29.034
there is enough lung function,
so for the neonatologists,

46:29.032 --> 46:34.242
life begins when there's enough
lung function so that it can

46:34.237 --> 46:36.617
live outside the uterus.

46:36.619 --> 46:38.279
Now neurologists,
I'm a neurobiologist,

46:38.280 --> 46:41.270
so neurologists are closest to
my--I don't know to my heart,

46:41.268 --> 46:44.358
but they're close to me,
they always define the

46:44.364 --> 46:47.464
beginning of life as when is
someone human,

46:47.460 --> 46:52.060
as referring to some mental
capacity that they can do.

46:52.059 --> 46:54.709
It might be motor response,
it might align with the ability

46:54.706 --> 46:56.916
to move,
that they're looking for motor

46:56.916 --> 46:59.106
responses,
it might be brainwaves,

46:59.106 --> 47:01.726
it might be ability to sense
something.

47:01.730 --> 47:05.540
One variant of the
neurologist's point of view has

47:05.541 --> 47:09.821
gotten, to some extent embedded
in the public debate.

47:09.820 --> 47:14.430
This is when the fetus can feel
pain and that's the point at

47:14.429 --> 47:19.119
which life begins for legal
purposes, as they perceive it.

47:19.119 --> 47:22.309
There's some research on this
question, not an awful lot,

47:22.306 --> 47:23.726
it's very hard to tell.

47:23.730 --> 47:27.960
What you can determine
experimentally is,

47:27.960 --> 47:30.720
we know there's pain receptors
on the surface like if you

47:30.722 --> 47:33.292
electric shock something or burn
it or something,

47:33.289 --> 47:35.189
there's pain receptors,
we can identify those,

47:35.190 --> 47:38.450
we can stimulate those,
and we know the pathways by

47:38.449 --> 47:40.599
which it goes up to the cortex.

47:40.599 --> 47:43.969
By the seventh month,
at the beginning of the seventh

47:43.967 --> 47:46.027
month,
those neural pathways are

47:46.030 --> 47:49.470
mature enough so that at least
the information that there's

47:49.467 --> 47:51.717
some pain has gone into the
cortex.

47:51.719 --> 47:54.279
We still have no information on
what, if anything,

47:54.279 --> 47:57.099
the cortex does with that
information at this stage.

47:57.099 --> 48:02.409
It may not be ready to have any
kind of response to it.

48:02.409 --> 48:06.369
I go on about all these
different ways of defining the

48:06.367 --> 48:10.827
beginning of a cycle,
beginning of the cycle of life,

48:10.827 --> 48:14.697
and it's up to your cultural or
scientific,

48:14.699 --> 48:16.649
or academic predilections.

48:16.650 --> 48:18.290
You can do set whenever you
want.

48:18.289 --> 48:21.329
All of those designations are
equally legitimate and equally

48:21.327 --> 48:22.097
illegitimate.

48:22.099 --> 48:24.009
None of them are a scientific
question.

48:24.010 --> 48:27.590
Science will describe to you
all the stages of the cycle,

48:27.592 --> 48:31.112
but it won't say anything about
where you should say the

48:31.110 --> 48:33.030
beginning of the cycle is.

48:33.030 --> 48:36.370
It's a chicken and the egg
problem, just very simply.

48:36.369 --> 48:40.119


48:40.119 --> 48:44.969
Now you have this thing that is
not a scientific question.

48:44.969 --> 48:48.149
There's tremendous cultural
diversity about it.

48:48.150 --> 48:52.930
There's tremendous diversity
within the public of one culture

48:52.934 --> 48:54.614
like ours about it.

48:54.610 --> 48:58.630
But, the law has to define
murder because you can't go and

48:58.632 --> 49:01.952
murder a TA because they gave me
a bad grade.

49:01.949 --> 49:08.069
So the law has to define
some--has to accept one of these

49:08.065 --> 49:09.045
points.

49:09.050 --> 49:14.130
There's law has had a variety
of things.

49:14.130 --> 49:19.320
What the law likes is what they
call a bright white line.

49:19.320 --> 49:24.180
That it's clear to everybody
when you've crossed this line.

49:24.179 --> 49:27.509
Since the development of the
fetus in the uterus is

49:27.512 --> 49:30.912
continuous, there's no
particular point in time that

49:30.913 --> 49:34.213
you can say;
this stage is different than

49:34.206 --> 49:35.476
the day before.

49:35.480 --> 49:39.290
No point during gestation would
be a bright white line that

49:39.291 --> 49:43.171
everyone agrees that it either
happened or didn't happen.

49:43.170 --> 49:45.660
What they--the bright white
line today is birth;

49:45.659 --> 49:49.359
everybody knows when someone
has given birth.

49:49.360 --> 49:54.080
I'll tell you in a moment that
in Jewish Rabbinic law it's even

49:54.081 --> 49:55.301
more specific.

49:55.300 --> 50:02.490
It's when half the head sticks
out--that's when birth happens,

50:02.490 --> 50:07.090
that's when the fetus becomes a
baby.

50:07.090 --> 50:11.780
Pretty much the courts have
stuck, so far in America,

50:11.777 --> 50:16.817
with this conclusion that birth
is the bright white line,

50:16.824 --> 50:19.714
everybody can agree on that.

50:19.710 --> 50:23.200
There's also a fair amount of
religious opinion that

50:23.201 --> 50:26.081
quickening, that's another--at
least to the

50:26.077 --> 50:28.197
mother--identifiable event.

50:28.199 --> 50:30.299
Now an outside person can't
necessarily tell this,

50:30.300 --> 50:33.520
but the mother does not know
whether she's pregnant until

50:33.523 --> 50:36.333
quickening,
until she feels the baby kick.

50:36.329 --> 50:38.869
She can miss a period but
there's a quite few reasons for

50:38.873 --> 50:40.693
missing a period other than
pregnancy.

50:40.690 --> 50:44.870
Some of the earlier laws and
continuing into some of the

50:44.865 --> 50:48.815
abortion laws refer to
quickening as bright a line as

50:48.815 --> 50:50.025
you can get.

50:50.030 --> 50:52.660
But there, the mother knows it
before everyone else.

50:52.659 --> 50:55.819
Eventually you can put your ear
or your hand to a pregnant

50:55.815 --> 50:58.805
woman's stomach and feel the
kicks but the mother knows

50:58.806 --> 50:59.356
early.

50:59.360 --> 51:03.020
Since that happens over--in
different pregnancies over quite

51:03.019 --> 51:06.629
a wide range of time,
over actually a month to month

51:06.628 --> 51:09.878
and a half before the kicks
become sensible,

51:09.880 --> 51:16.720
it's not a very good kind of a
line.

51:16.719 --> 51:22.269
Okay, so we so far have the
idea of the beginning of life is

51:22.268 --> 51:26.618
not a scientific idea,
it's very variable in cultures,

51:26.623 --> 51:30.383
and so we still haven't really
answered the question of why

51:30.375 --> 51:33.995
this idea that life begins
conception is such a prevalent

51:33.996 --> 51:35.416
idea in the West.

51:35.420 --> 51:39.330
Again, other cultures have
different kinds of ideas.

51:39.329 --> 51:42.209
One thing of course that pops
up to mind is,

51:42.211 --> 51:45.231
is it biblical,
because so much of our culture

51:45.228 --> 51:47.238
comes from biblical ideas.

51:47.239 --> 51:52.239
Well you know what--what is
life--what does the Bible say

51:52.244 --> 51:54.484
about when life begins?

51:54.480 --> 51:56.120
Anybody know?

51:56.119 --> 51:58.729
Nobody--there's all this
fundamentalism in America and

51:58.730 --> 51:59.420
nobody here.

51:59.420 --> 52:02.390
Well what is the cycle of life
described in the Bible?

52:02.389 --> 52:06.129
This is common in literature;
any literature major should

52:06.134 --> 52:07.114
know this.

52:07.110 --> 52:08.800
Dust to dust.

52:08.800 --> 52:11.270
You've--how many of you have
heard dust to dust?

52:11.268 --> 52:16.498
Yeah, or sometimes translated
as earth to earth,

52:16.500 --> 52:19.290
it's Genesis 2:7:
"God formed man of dust

52:19.293 --> 52:22.463
from the ground until he
returned to the ground,

52:22.460 --> 52:25.160
for out of it you are taken,
you are dust and to dust you

52:25.157 --> 52:26.167
shall return."

52:26.170 --> 52:28.780
That's the cycle of life.

52:28.780 --> 52:33.150
If there's a beginning to the
cycle, at what age did God

52:33.148 --> 52:34.258
create Adam?

52:34.260 --> 52:36.500
There's something moderately
explicit about that.

52:36.500 --> 52:40.260
Created Adam in his own image,
well the image of God is

52:40.257 --> 52:43.037
not--it's not a fertilized egg,
right?

52:43.039 --> 52:47.619
Whatever you perceive the image
of God, it's more or less an

52:47.615 --> 52:48.775
adult person.

52:48.780 --> 52:51.610
Of course, right away Adam was
able to receive commandments to

52:51.605 --> 52:55.165
not eat the fruit and so forth,
and suddenly Eve was born out

52:55.168 --> 53:03.298
of his rib,
certainly not a two cell cycle.

53:03.300 --> 53:08.060
Again, in the Old Testament
there's just no support

53:08.059 --> 53:12.629
whatsoever for the idea that,
as a biblical idea,

53:12.628 --> 53:15.958
that life begins at conception.

53:15.960 --> 53:19.300
There is no--in the New
Testament the issue just doesn't

53:19.297 --> 53:20.327
come up at all.

53:20.329 --> 53:23.569
There's no statement about when
life begins.

53:23.570 --> 53:27.430
We'll come to some statements
which are very loosely

53:27.431 --> 53:30.311
interpreted in that way in a
minute.

53:30.309 --> 53:32.059
Very interesting.

53:32.059 --> 53:34.949
There's two great Catholic and
then Christian because

53:34.954 --> 53:37.914
Christians have inherited most
of the theologians--St.

53:37.905 --> 53:38.845
Augustine and St.

53:38.851 --> 53:41.191
Thomas Aquinas,
you've heard of them.

53:41.190 --> 53:41.440
St.

53:41.438 --> 53:45.078
Augustine came first in 300 and
something,

53:45.079 --> 53:48.319
and, in his Confessions,
he's interested in this

53:48.322 --> 53:51.122
question and he says,
"Tell me God,

53:51.121 --> 53:55.051
tell me whether there was some
period of my life which preceded

53:55.052 --> 53:55.942
my infancy.

53:55.940 --> 53:59.100
Is this period that I spent in
my mother's womb,

53:59.096 --> 54:01.846
was I anywhere or any sort of a
person?

54:01.849 --> 54:05.339
I have no one able to tell me
that, neither my father nor my

54:05.336 --> 54:09.116
mother, nor the experience of
others, nor my own memory."

54:09.119 --> 54:13.789
Here's one of the greatest
Catholic saints and theologians,

54:13.789 --> 54:17.179
who's of course read the Bible,
knows it backwards and

54:17.181 --> 54:19.781
forwards,
and he is very well aware that

54:19.784 --> 54:23.274
there isn't information in that
to tell him that answer.

54:23.268 --> 54:26.218
The conclusion is,
that this isn't a really

54:26.215 --> 54:29.645
biblical, the idea that life
begins at conception,

54:29.652 --> 54:32.952
is not something that comes
from the Bible.

54:32.949 --> 54:37.259


54:37.260 --> 54:40.980
I'm going to switch a little
bit and come back to this--these

54:40.980 --> 54:42.220
kinds of thoughts.

54:42.219 --> 54:47.079
A little bit of the history of
abortion.

54:47.079 --> 54:50.839
Abortion has been known in
history as far as back as we can

54:50.840 --> 54:51.360
trace.

54:51.360 --> 54:54.700
The oldest reference is from
Egyptian hieroglyphs in tomb

54:54.695 --> 54:57.495
paintings, so we're talking
about the very early

54:57.496 --> 54:58.506
civilization.

54:58.510 --> 55:02.990
As soon as people can write,
they're writing about abortion.

55:02.989 --> 55:06.559
By the time of the Roman Empire
there were lots of references to

55:06.563 --> 55:10.083
abortion in the literature and
there are no laws against it.

55:10.079 --> 55:13.469
The Romans didn't consider it.

55:13.469 --> 55:16.819
As I've just mentioned,
in the New Testament,

55:16.822 --> 55:20.942
it's not mentioned at all and
there's of course nothing

55:20.938 --> 55:22.308
forbidding it.

55:22.309 --> 55:26.449
The New Testament and the Roman
Empire are contemporaneous of

55:26.449 --> 55:28.569
course,
and so the conclusion is that,

55:28.572 --> 55:33.052
even though abortion was very,
very common at that time and

55:33.054 --> 55:40.954
used by all classes of people,
there was not an issue for the

55:40.945 --> 55:44.405
New Testament writers.

55:44.409 --> 55:48.039


55:48.039 --> 55:51.879
At the end of the Roman--this
classical period,

55:51.878 --> 55:56.798
this Judeo-Christian way of
thinking about things comes into

55:56.800 --> 56:00.390
the mainstream of Western
civilization.

56:00.389 --> 56:04.769
There is an explicit passage
about abortion in the Old

56:04.768 --> 56:05.758
Testament.

56:05.760 --> 56:10.000
Don't call it out but anybody
knows--at least one person ought

56:10.003 --> 56:12.163
to know what this passage is.

56:12.159 --> 56:19.229
One, two, so it's a very,
very minor number of people.

56:19.230 --> 56:21.900
The Ten Commandments,
which you all know,

56:21.902 --> 56:25.712
and you all know this passage
also, but I'll get to it.

56:25.710 --> 56:28.590
The Ten Commandments are in
Exodus 20 and the sixth of the

56:28.594 --> 56:29.864
commandments,
as you know,

56:29.858 --> 56:31.628
"you shalt not kill".

56:31.630 --> 56:32.890
What does this mean?

56:32.889 --> 56:34.339
What do all these laws mean?

56:34.340 --> 56:37.770
In the following chapters,
there's an explanation of how

56:37.768 --> 56:39.388
to interpret these laws.

56:39.389 --> 56:41.909
There's various violent acts
that men do and which ones are

56:41.911 --> 56:42.391
accepted.

56:42.389 --> 56:43.789
May you beat your slave?

56:43.789 --> 56:44.759
May you kill your slave?

56:44.760 --> 56:46.250
May you do this,
may you do that?

56:46.250 --> 56:47.860
And there's a lot of
jurisprudence in there.

56:47.860 --> 56:51.010
What do these one sentence Ten
Commandments ,

56:51.005 --> 56:54.715
what do they--how do you
interpret them in particular

56:54.724 --> 56:55.444
cases?

56:55.440 --> 56:56.710
In Exodus 21,
for instance,

56:56.708 --> 56:58.268
what to do in cases of murder?

56:58.268 --> 57:01.068
What if one man hits another
with a stone or his fist?

57:01.070 --> 57:02.350
What if a man kills his servant?

57:02.349 --> 57:05.229
What if a man kills a thief?

57:05.230 --> 57:09.700
All of this exegesis;
in this passage where it's

57:09.702 --> 57:14.192
explaining the Ten Commandments,
including thou shalt not kill;

57:14.190 --> 57:18.850
it describes a crime that is
much worse than a modern

57:18.853 --> 57:19.843
abortion.

57:19.840 --> 57:22.490
In a modern abortion,
a woman, for whatever reason,

57:22.489 --> 57:24.079
doesn't want to be pregnant.

57:24.079 --> 57:28.139
She goes to a doctor and says,
'please doc I want an abortion,

57:28.139 --> 57:31.959
I don't want to be pregnant and
here's $150 or $200 or whatever

57:31.960 --> 57:35.640
it costs,
and please do this for me,' so

57:35.644 --> 57:39.674
it's voluntary on the part of
the woman.

57:39.670 --> 57:44.550
This passage in the Bible
describes a worse situation

57:44.545 --> 57:48.945
where a man violently,
against the woman's will,

57:48.954 --> 57:52.334
causes her to miscarry or
abort.

57:52.329 --> 57:54.569
This is the quote,
"When men have a fight and

57:54.565 --> 57:57.345
hurt a pregnant woman so that
she suffers a miscarriage,"

57:57.349 --> 57:59.449
the man is fighting with the
woman there,

57:59.449 --> 58:03.729
so he goes after the wife
rather than the husband,

58:03.730 --> 58:07.000
"When men fight and hurt a
pregnant woman so that she

58:06.996 --> 58:09.946
suffers a miscarriage,
but no further injury,

58:09.952 --> 58:14.042
the guilty one shall be fined
as much as the woman's husband

58:14.036 --> 58:17.696
demands of him and he shall pay
in the presence of the

58:17.704 --> 58:18.954
judges."

58:18.949 --> 58:22.489
Now that is a standard Hebraic,
Old Testament,

58:22.492 --> 58:24.622
law for a property crime.

58:24.619 --> 58:27.949
You do a crime,
everyone knows--they decide

58:27.949 --> 58:32.149
that you actually have stolen
this from the person.

58:32.150 --> 58:36.810
The victim gets to say how much
is proper recompense for this.

58:36.809 --> 58:39.299
But, the victim can't ask for
anything outrageous,

58:39.302 --> 58:42.002
so a judge has to basically
approve the settlement.

58:42.000 --> 58:45.410
If the judge approves--you
steal something,

58:45.409 --> 58:47.519
well I want that same thing
back or ten times as much,

58:47.518 --> 58:50.088
or whatever it is,
goes before a judge,

58:50.090 --> 58:52.120
the judge approves it,
if the judge approves it,

58:52.119 --> 58:54.819
it's paid, and that settles it.

58:54.820 --> 58:58.420
That's what happens if the
fetus comes out,

58:58.416 --> 59:02.606
if there's this miscarriage but
no further injury,

59:02.614 --> 59:04.504
that's the result.

59:04.500 --> 59:06.240
But it continues,
the passage,

59:06.239 --> 59:09.539
"But if injury ensues you
shall give life for life,

59:09.539 --> 59:12.119
eye for eye,
and tooth for tooth."

59:12.119 --> 59:14.779
How many of you heard that
sentence?

59:14.780 --> 59:17.420
Oh my gosh, that's everywhere
in Western civilization,

59:17.420 --> 59:19.540
everybody should have heard
that, that's called the lex

59:19.543 --> 59:22.003
talionis,
the law of the claw sort of

59:21.996 --> 59:25.856
thing and it's very standard,
that retribution for

59:25.862 --> 59:26.992
retribution.

59:26.989 --> 59:31.059
It's very, very interesting
because it says an eye for eye,

59:31.063 --> 59:34.013
life for life,
well is he talking about the

59:34.014 --> 59:35.634
baby or the mother?

59:35.630 --> 59:38.960
Life for life could be either
even though it says the baby is

59:38.963 --> 59:41.683
born already you can
still--people fiddle a little

59:41.684 --> 59:42.134
bit.

59:42.130 --> 59:43.600
Life for life,
eye for eye,

59:43.596 --> 59:46.526
and then what is the third
thing, tooth for tooth;

59:46.530 --> 59:49.050
that lets you know right away,
babies don't have teeth,

59:49.050 --> 59:52.670
that's sort of the one thing
that they're missing and the

59:52.670 --> 59:56.290
fact that this passage selects
that as the third thing to

59:56.293 --> 59:59.663
describe is a very clear
indication that it's not the

59:59.655 --> 1:00:03.255
fetus they're talking about,
but it's the mother.

1:00:03.260 --> 1:00:05.940
This is very;
very clear both from that--so

1:00:05.936 --> 1:00:08.996
that if she suffers a
miscarriage, but no further

1:00:08.996 --> 1:00:11.416
injury then it's a property
crime.

1:00:11.420 --> 1:00:14.160
You've taken away something
that the father,

1:00:14.155 --> 1:00:16.825
in particular,
wanted and the father is the

1:00:16.827 --> 1:00:18.987
one that gets to decide on it.

1:00:18.989 --> 1:00:24.619
But, if you do damage to the
mother, then you have to really,

1:00:24.621 --> 1:00:26.501
really pay for it.

1:00:26.500 --> 1:00:29.740
That's the most explicit
passage in the Bible about

1:00:29.737 --> 1:00:33.357
abortion and it's totally clear
that it's the life of the

1:00:33.362 --> 1:00:36.452
mother,
the life and physical health of

1:00:36.451 --> 1:00:39.361
the mother that's the important
thing.

1:00:39.360 --> 1:00:42.000
The Jewish Talmudic Law,
which is not the Bible but

1:00:42.000 --> 1:00:45.590
writing about it says,
"If a woman is in hard

1:00:45.588 --> 1:00:48.328
travail,
and her life cannot otherwise

1:00:48.329 --> 1:00:51.369
be saved,
one cuts up the child within

1:00:51.369 --> 1:00:56.589
her womb and extracts it member
by member because her life comes

1:00:56.590 --> 1:00:58.910
before that of the child.

1:00:58.909 --> 1:01:02.319
But, if the greater part of the
head was delivered,

1:01:02.320 --> 1:01:06.010
one may not touch it,
for one may not set aside one

1:01:06.012 --> 1:01:09.412
person's life for the sake of
another."

1:01:09.409 --> 1:01:13.949
Again, a very explicit
statement that before birth,

1:01:13.949 --> 1:01:17.479
defined as half the head out,
it's the life of the mother is

1:01:17.483 --> 1:01:20.793
the only critical thing,
but once that birth has

1:01:20.789 --> 1:01:25.269
actually proceeded then they are
equal and you can't even save

1:01:25.271 --> 1:01:27.771
the mother's life in this case.

1:01:27.768 --> 1:01:31.438
What kind of procedure is this
describing that's become

1:01:31.443 --> 1:01:33.693
politically very important now?

1:01:33.690 --> 1:01:34.750
Student:  Partial birth
abortion.

1:01:34.750 --> 1:01:36.540
Prof: Partial birth
abortion.

1:01:36.539 --> 1:01:39.029
It's the-procedure that the
right-to-life people are very

1:01:39.029 --> 1:01:39.829
much opposed to.

1:01:39.829 --> 1:01:42.679
But, here it is,
from biblical scholars talking

1:01:42.679 --> 1:01:46.519
about it as when a woman is in
hard travail and there's nothing

1:01:46.519 --> 1:01:51.579
to do but that,
then you go ahead and do that.

1:01:51.579 --> 1:01:55.959
Of course this emphasis on the
mother is exactly what is

1:01:55.961 --> 1:01:59.311
reflected in the Supreme Court
decision.

1:01:59.309 --> 1:02:03.229
I've given you to read the
Roe v.

1:02:03.228 --> 1:02:08.718
Wade Decision,
and again, it's the mother that

1:02:08.715 --> 1:02:11.845
is the central interest.

1:02:11.849 --> 1:02:14.609
You may remember that the
Roe v.

1:02:14.612 --> 1:02:19.002
Wade divides up pregnancy
into three trimesters.

1:02:19.000 --> 1:02:20.820
The first three months,
the second three months,

1:02:20.824 --> 1:02:21.954
and the third three months.

1:02:21.949 --> 1:02:25.709
The first three months are
completely at the mother's

1:02:25.710 --> 1:02:26.650
discretion.

1:02:26.650 --> 1:02:30.060
The second three months the
state can put some controls on

1:02:30.056 --> 1:02:33.626
it and the third three months,
after the sixth month,

1:02:33.625 --> 1:02:36.595
then the state has a lot of say
in this.

1:02:36.599 --> 1:02:39.709
The Supreme Court Decision is
kind of a balance,

1:02:39.713 --> 1:02:43.363
and why did they decide to
break it up by not halves?

1:02:43.360 --> 1:02:45.890
Why into three months?

1:02:45.889 --> 1:02:51.599
That probably again comes--is a
biblical thing.

1:02:51.599 --> 1:02:54.809
One of the quotes that right to
lifers use a lot,

1:02:54.809 --> 1:02:58.489
and again you probably don't
know this, but go talk to a

1:02:58.489 --> 1:03:00.209
right to lifer;
if you're

1:03:00.206 --> 1:03:02.786
prochoice--whoever--whatever
side of this thing--talk

1:03:02.786 --> 1:03:04.866
seriously to someone on the
other side.

1:03:04.869 --> 1:03:08.349
It's very--it's always very
informative.

1:03:08.349 --> 1:03:12.889
There's this passage where
Elizabeth is pregnant with John

1:03:12.887 --> 1:03:17.587
the Baptist, and then Mary gets
pregnant and she goes to see

1:03:17.585 --> 1:03:18.695
Elizabeth.

1:03:18.699 --> 1:03:21.959
John the Baptist,
inside Elizabeth's womb,

1:03:21.958 --> 1:03:23.228
jumps for joy.

1:03:23.230 --> 1:03:26.450
Have any of you heard this
passage used in these debates?

1:03:26.449 --> 1:03:28.929
Again, just a few of you,
it's a very,

1:03:28.934 --> 1:03:30.954
very standard sort of thing.

1:03:30.949 --> 1:03:34.919
It goes--it's in Luke,
"And when Elizabeth heard

1:03:34.918 --> 1:03:38.508
the greeting of Mary,
the babe leaped in her womb,

1:03:38.514 --> 1:03:42.364
for behold when the voice of
your greeting came to my ears,

1:03:42.360 --> 1:03:45.320
the babe in my womb leaped for
joy."

1:03:45.320 --> 1:03:49.860
This is taken by right-to-life
people that the baby in the womb

1:03:49.855 --> 1:03:53.435
is already a sentient,
a person, a full person.

1:03:53.440 --> 1:03:56.600
Interestingly,
the story gives extra

1:03:56.603 --> 1:03:57.873
information.

1:03:57.869 --> 1:03:59.589
Zachariah, that's Elizabeth
husband,

1:03:59.590 --> 1:04:02.040
they're very religious and
they're old and they have no

1:04:02.036 --> 1:04:03.896
children,
but then God rewards their

1:04:03.900 --> 1:04:05.880
goodness by making Elizabeth
pregnant.

1:04:05.880 --> 1:04:09.800
It's a recast of the Jacob
story where his wife

1:04:09.800 --> 1:04:12.530
wasn't--couldn't get pregnant.

1:04:12.530 --> 1:04:15.100
"After these days his wife
Elizabeth conceived,

1:04:15.099 --> 1:04:16.929
and for five months she hid
herself"

1:04:16.929 --> 1:04:19.169
… "in the sixth
month Gabriel was sent

1:04:19.170 --> 1:04:21.090
…"
to announce to Mary that she

1:04:21.092 --> 1:04:23.522
would bear Jesus,
and the angel Gabriel

1:04:23.518 --> 1:04:27.258
explicitly explains to Mary that
Elizabeth is now six months

1:04:27.255 --> 1:04:28.785
pregnant,
"And behold,

1:04:28.786 --> 1:04:30.766
your kinswoman Elizabeth,
in her old age,

1:04:30.773 --> 1:04:34.493
has also conceived a son,
and this is the sixth month

1:04:34.489 --> 1:04:37.529
with her who was called
barren."

1:04:37.530 --> 1:04:41.510
It's amazing because the Bible
is not--in no other passage is

1:04:41.505 --> 1:04:44.415
it explicit about the stages of
pregnancy.

1:04:44.420 --> 1:04:48.410
This repetition,
that at six months something

1:04:48.407 --> 1:04:51.757
special happens is very
diagnostic.

1:04:51.760 --> 1:04:55.070
It is almost undoubtedly--they
don't explicitly say it--the

1:04:55.067 --> 1:04:58.427
reason why the Supreme Court
said to , instead of in halves,

1:04:58.431 --> 1:04:59.231
in thirds.

1:04:59.230 --> 1:05:02.000
The sixth month,
because that,

1:05:02.001 --> 1:05:07.731
in a sense, is in accordance
with one interpretation of these

1:05:07.733 --> 1:05:09.553
Bible passages.

1:05:09.550 --> 1:05:13.850
It also is scientifically
reasonable because it accords

1:05:13.847 --> 1:05:17.987
with the time when the fetus
does respond to external

1:05:17.985 --> 1:05:18.935
stimuli.

1:05:18.940 --> 1:05:21.360
By six months,
if the mother gets excited or

1:05:21.355 --> 1:05:24.555
something, you can detect it in
the fetal heartbeat and so

1:05:24.557 --> 1:05:25.117
forth.

1:05:25.119 --> 1:05:28.029
If there's a physical bang or
something you can detect it in

1:05:28.027 --> 1:05:28.617
the fetus.

1:05:28.619 --> 1:05:32.399
So, at six months there's some
sort of responsiveness,

1:05:32.400 --> 1:05:35.610
neuro-responsiveness going on
in the fetus.

1:05:35.610 --> 1:05:40.110


1:05:40.110 --> 1:05:44.560
There's other passages and I
put them all in your reading

1:05:44.563 --> 1:05:45.283
packet.

1:05:45.280 --> 1:05:50.990
I put the Exodus passage which
prochoice people refer to if

1:05:50.985 --> 1:05:55.015
they know it,
and the prolife passages.

1:05:55.018 --> 1:06:00.748
I put them all in your reading
packet and you can read them

1:06:00.746 --> 1:06:01.336
all.

1:06:01.340 --> 1:06:05.060
Given the--basically the
silence, except for this

1:06:05.059 --> 1:06:08.149
explicit--
really except for the explicit

1:06:08.148 --> 1:06:12.318
passage in Exodus about the
criminal causing an abortion of

1:06:12.320 --> 1:06:14.990
this woman,
the Bible is really quite

1:06:14.985 --> 1:06:16.375
silent on this issue.

1:06:16.380 --> 1:06:19.480
Yet it's of theologically great
importance.

1:06:19.480 --> 1:06:22.620
So, what has happened is the
Christian theologians had to

1:06:22.617 --> 1:06:25.197
rely on the opinions of--
especially the ancient

1:06:25.197 --> 1:06:28.607
philosophers because when they--
this all started in the Roman

1:06:28.605 --> 1:06:31.465
Empire those were the
philosophers that were of

1:06:31.467 --> 1:06:32.337
importance.

1:06:32.340 --> 1:06:35.870
As I mentioned to you,
Aristotle argued that the

1:06:35.869 --> 1:06:40.379
matter of the fetus came from
menstrual blood and--but it got

1:06:40.378 --> 1:06:41.578
interesting.

1:06:41.579 --> 1:06:44.639
After the discharge is over,
so he thought pregnancy started

1:06:44.641 --> 1:06:46.461
after menstrual flow had
stopped.

1:06:46.460 --> 1:06:49.220
So, in a cycle where there was
a menstrual flow,

1:06:49.219 --> 1:06:52.339
he says, "After the
discharge is over and most of it

1:06:52.336 --> 1:06:55.146
has passed out,
then what remains begins to

1:06:55.148 --> 1:06:57.088
take shape as a fetus."

1:06:57.090 --> 1:06:59.950
The female menstrual blood,
however, is incapable of doing

1:06:59.947 --> 1:07:00.797
this by itself.

1:07:00.800 --> 1:07:03.410
It must have the stimulus of
the male semen."

1:07:03.409 --> 1:07:06.869
They didn't know anything about
sperms at that time but they of

1:07:06.867 --> 1:07:10.097
course did know about semen,
and they knew that intercourse

1:07:10.101 --> 1:07:11.051
was required.

1:07:11.050 --> 1:07:13.510
What it did they had no clue.

1:07:13.510 --> 1:07:16.330
Male semen does not contribute
to the material of the fetus.

1:07:16.329 --> 1:07:19.249
He wondered what guided the
development of the blood in the

1:07:19.246 --> 1:07:22.166
fetus,
and the thought there must be

1:07:22.173 --> 1:07:27.213
some agent that is introduced by
the sperm which causes this

1:07:27.208 --> 1:07:30.108
coagulating blood to take form.

1:07:30.110 --> 1:07:34.680
He, according to Greek word for
this which later gets translated

1:07:34.682 --> 1:07:39.112
as 'soul,' and the Western idea
of soul really comes from this

1:07:39.110 --> 1:07:42.070
Greek,
this Aristotelian image of

1:07:42.068 --> 1:07:45.888
whatever it is that comes in the
semen that--

1:07:45.889 --> 1:07:48.729
does not contribute physically
to it,

1:07:48.730 --> 1:07:51.070
but organizes this whole thing.

1:07:51.070 --> 1:07:55.890
Much later in the 1500s and
1600s, when these issues became

1:07:55.889 --> 1:08:00.209
hot again, this is one of the
pictures of Aristotle's

1:08:00.208 --> 1:08:01.288
coagulum.

1:08:01.289 --> 1:08:05.119
So, this is the womb,
and inside this stuff is

1:08:05.117 --> 1:08:09.027
mother's menstrual blood as it
is presumed,

1:08:09.030 --> 1:08:12.530
and it's gradually getting
organized so you really can't

1:08:12.530 --> 1:08:15.140
see much of the organization in
there,

1:08:15.139 --> 1:08:19.059
but what you can see is the
blood vessels starting to form.

1:08:19.060 --> 1:08:24.350
If, in fact you do dissections
of a fetus,

1:08:24.350 --> 1:08:27.000
the first thing that forms is
the placenta and this is the

1:08:26.996 --> 1:08:29.686
most obvious thing is the blood
vessels of the placenta.

1:08:29.689 --> 1:08:32.299
The mother has half the
placenta and the fetus has half

1:08:32.296 --> 1:08:34.146
the placenta,
as I hope you know,

1:08:34.152 --> 1:08:37.572
and that's where nutrients get
exchanged and waste gets taken

1:08:37.570 --> 1:08:37.970
out.

1:08:37.970 --> 1:08:44.070
Then I guess in the original,
somehow you could see that

1:08:44.069 --> 1:08:51.059
there was a gradual formation of
the fetus but finally the fetus

1:08:51.055 --> 1:08:56.815
forms as some sort of
coagulation of this blood under

1:08:56.823 --> 1:09:00.043
the influence of semen.

1:09:00.038 --> 1:09:09.788
These--you all know this story,
so we now interpret conception.

1:09:09.788 --> 1:09:11.778
Conception is actually a very
vague word,

1:09:11.779 --> 1:09:15.199
and I have it in here but there
isn't time to read you what the

1:09:15.202 --> 1:09:17.192
Catholic encyclopedia says it
is,

1:09:17.189 --> 1:09:19.749
and it's very,
very complicated and it's not

1:09:19.747 --> 1:09:21.647
anything that you think it is.

1:09:21.649 --> 1:09:25.809
We interpret now as more
educated--how do we interpret

1:09:25.809 --> 1:09:26.829
conception?

1:09:26.828 --> 1:09:29.808
We use it as the same idea as
fertilization.

1:09:29.810 --> 1:09:33.160
Do any of you make a
distinction between conception

1:09:33.158 --> 1:09:34.498
and fertilization?

1:09:34.500 --> 1:09:38.470
No, I'm not going to ask the
opposite question.

1:09:38.470 --> 1:09:41.530
Fertilization is the specific
current scientific concept.

1:09:41.529 --> 1:09:44.739
Conception is an old thing,
something undefined,

1:09:44.738 --> 1:09:48.898
that an act of intercourse is
needed, and ejaculation of sperm

1:09:48.903 --> 1:09:51.433
is needed, and something goes
on.

1:09:51.430 --> 1:09:58.220
Unknown, but something goes on
and that leads to conception.

1:09:58.220 --> 1:10:02.200
Our current interpretation of
this as fertilization is often

1:10:02.198 --> 1:10:05.158
now taken to be the traditional
Western view,

1:10:05.164 --> 1:10:07.664
the traditionally Christian
view.

1:10:07.658 --> 1:10:11.668
When was fertilization
discovered?

1:10:11.670 --> 1:10:14.460
When were sperms discovered?

1:10:14.460 --> 1:10:16.550
I think you know this.

1:10:16.550 --> 1:10:19.110
What's the name,
the person who

1:10:19.105 --> 1:10:22.085
discovered--invented
microscopes?

1:10:22.090 --> 1:10:25.260
Anthony van Leeuwenhoek,
you've heard of Leeuwenhoek?

1:10:25.260 --> 1:10:27.410
I'm sure in high school you
went through this.

1:10:27.408 --> 1:10:29.508
He was the one that first found
little animalcules,

1:10:29.510 --> 1:10:33.020
he took drops of water
and--from ponds and looked at it

1:10:33.024 --> 1:10:37.004
and saw all these little things
swimming around and he defined

1:10:36.996 --> 1:10:39.596
them as animalcules,
little animals.

1:10:39.600 --> 1:10:42.370
Then he looked in sperm and
there were these little things

1:10:42.365 --> 1:10:43.235
swimming around.

1:10:43.238 --> 1:10:46.418
Apparently, I'm not sure that
this is proper history,

1:10:46.420 --> 1:10:49.700
the spice trade was real
important back then and they

1:10:49.698 --> 1:10:53.608
wanted to know what it was that
gave spice its tangy flavor.

1:10:53.609 --> 1:10:56.669
So he invented the microscope
to look at spice so to see--

1:10:56.670 --> 1:10:58.820
because it was very expensive
to get spice all the way from

1:10:58.823 --> 1:11:01.073
the Middle East,
going through mostly Muslim

1:11:01.065 --> 1:11:02.865
countries,
who charged a lot to passage

1:11:02.871 --> 1:11:05.231
it, and so it was very expensive
and they wanted to know the

1:11:05.234 --> 1:11:07.724
secret of spice and they thought
there was something in it.

1:11:07.720 --> 1:11:09.400
So, he invented the microscope
to look at that,

1:11:09.399 --> 1:11:12.349
but what he found was little
animalcules and he eventually

1:11:12.345 --> 1:11:14.975
looks at sperm and he sees the
animalcules in it.

1:11:14.979 --> 1:11:16.099
What does he do?

1:11:16.100 --> 1:11:18.910
He interprets it as the same
animalcules as in the water.

1:11:18.908 --> 1:11:21.988
Well the sperm is made of
something--I'm sorry the semen

1:11:21.987 --> 1:11:25.287
is made of something and these
sperm are little contaminants

1:11:25.288 --> 1:11:26.798
which are eating it up.

1:11:26.800 --> 1:11:32.660
They're just like the little
guys you saw on anything that

1:11:32.659 --> 1:11:34.099
was rotting.

1:11:34.100 --> 1:11:38.700


1:11:38.698 --> 1:11:45.248
That was a sperm,
but they didn't have any idea

1:11:45.252 --> 1:11:47.962
of what it meant.

1:11:47.960 --> 1:11:51.390
Then, it was much later--they
didn't see human eggs in

1:11:51.387 --> 1:11:53.497
mammals,
even mammal eggs that--You can

1:11:53.497 --> 1:11:56.087
see eggs of chickens,
you can see eggs of insects,

1:11:56.087 --> 1:11:57.387
they're pretty obvious.

1:11:57.390 --> 1:12:00.880
You can see eggs of fish,
they're pretty obvious,

1:12:00.884 --> 1:12:05.184
but the egg of a mammal is so
tiny that it can't be seen.

1:12:05.180 --> 1:12:08.260
It was actually William--there
were a number of guys who,

1:12:08.260 --> 1:12:11.430
sort of gradually saw it and
gradually realized what it was,

1:12:11.430 --> 1:12:14.100
but William Harvey,
the same guy that saw the

1:12:14.099 --> 1:12:17.029
circulation--
that figured out the

1:12:17.029 --> 1:12:23.289
circulation of blood was one of
the first ones to see an egg.

1:12:23.288 --> 1:12:26.838
They just knew about an egg and
they said, well that sort of got

1:12:26.840 --> 1:12:30.390
rid of this blood coagulum stuff
and they still had no idea what

1:12:30.390 --> 1:12:31.350
was in semen.

1:12:31.350 --> 1:12:34.670
Even though they saw sperms,
they didn't know that there was

1:12:34.667 --> 1:12:37.367
an egg,
so it wasn't until 1840s that

1:12:37.372 --> 1:12:41.442
finally fertilization was
discovered in mammals and that

1:12:41.436 --> 1:12:45.496
it was actually the physical
matter of the sperm and the

1:12:45.501 --> 1:12:49.271
physical matter of the egg that
come together.

1:12:49.270 --> 1:12:53.000
The conclusion of all this is
that the culture,

1:12:53.000 --> 1:12:55.800
our culture,
and especially the religious

1:12:55.800 --> 1:12:58.990
parts of it,
believe that life begins at

1:12:58.987 --> 1:13:03.417
conception and believe that this
is a traditional idea.

1:13:03.420 --> 1:13:06.150
That it goes way back to the
beginning of Christianity and

1:13:06.146 --> 1:13:07.196
even into the Bible.

1:13:07.198 --> 1:13:10.188
But, in fact,
the whole idea of fertilization

1:13:10.194 --> 1:13:13.944
only dates from 1840 and so it's
a very modern idea,

1:13:13.939 --> 1:13:15.929
and the whole--And then going
further,

1:13:15.930 --> 1:13:20.770
the whole idea of life having a
beginning just doesn't make any

1:13:20.774 --> 1:13:25.624
scientific sense because we know
and have known for hundreds of

1:13:25.618 --> 1:13:28.038
years that life is a cycle.

1:13:28.038 --> 1:13:29.828
There is much more,
you have some very interesting

1:13:29.832 --> 1:13:31.732
reading on this topic,
and there's infinite amount of

1:13:31.734 --> 1:13:32.984
reading that you can do on it.

1:13:32.979 --> 1:13:36.599
That's all I'll say on it for
today.

1:13:36.600 --> 1:13:42.000