When does a human being become fully human?

Joel Kontinen

PZ Myers, who is known as a militant atheist, said recently that in the early stages of pregnancy an unborn baby is not a human being.

However, Darwinian evolution does not occur in the womb. In contrast to what Ernst Haeckel, the father of the misleading embryo drawings, believed, a human being does not repeat the assumed stages of evolution before his or her birth but is fully human from conception.

The baby’s genetic information does not increase with the passing of time.

These 4-dimensional ultrasound images reveal that a human being looks like a human being at a very early stage.




According to the Bible, a human being is fully human from the beginning.

- In Psalm 139, David describes how God formed him in the womb.
- Isaiah says: ”Before I was born the LORD called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.”(Isa. 49:1, NIV)
- The Gospel of Luke includes an interesting detail: ”When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”(1:41, NIV) This suggests that we should not underestimate babies’ cognitive skills.