The great debate in Congress

In all the hearings that I have attended on prospective bills in both houses of Congress, parliamentary rules were observed. The behavior of our lawmakers and their emotional maturity in the deliberation on issues was ever commendable. There were no curses, name calling, verbal or physical confrontations with or without the media.

This did not mean however, that there were no impassioned debates or walkouts.

An issue that was emphatically argued upon in and out of the session hall is “When does life begin – fertilization or implantation?”

It was in one of these hearings in the House that Congressman Pablo Garcia of Cebu stunned the House when he asked “When does life begin, at fertilization or at implantation. His position was that as per constitution, life must be protected from the moment of conception and conception was synonymous with fertilization.

Congressman Edcel Lagman on the other hand, contended that life begins at implantation. Pregnancy tests become only positive at the implantation of the embryo.

Obviously, PMA, POGS, the religious and some NGOs supported the Garcia position while an equal number of stakeholders took up cudgels for the Lagman contention.

The same controversy about the beginning of life reverberated in the halls of the Senate and other fora where concerned parties enthusiastically endorsed their respective positions. The controversy even permeated the hearing on the Rights of the unborn introduced by Rep. Roilo Golez.

In one of such poignant occasions I presented the version espoused by POGS and PMA but made an excuse in my preamble that my presentation was limited only on the medical aspect of the issue – “when does life begin?”

In 1966, when I was still active in the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, our adopted position was that life begins at fertilization.

When a normal human sperm unites with a normal human ovum, in a few hours to a few days there is biophysical and biochemical interaction between the sperm substance and ovum contents. Mitochondria, organelles, chromosomes, DNA, RNA and other intra-cellular substances mix and rearrange. Such activities were documented and made possible by electron microscopy and understood by molecular biology.

In the microscopic mixture if the sperm substance dominates, the living matter may end up as a hydatidiform mole and its life self terminates.

If in the resultant mixture the ovum substance predominates, the living substance will end up as a blighted ovum and does not survive.

It is only when there is perfect homogenous mixture of sperm and ovum materials and there is a restoration of the equation of 46 somatic chromosomes and 2 sex chromosomes that a new human life begins and endures.

When the chromosomal combination is 46 somatic chromosomes and X and Y sex chromosomes the resultant prospective person becomes a male.

When the resultant combination is 46 somatic chromosomes and X and Y sex chromosomes the resulting prospective person becomes a female.

In the Philippines there are two centers for IVF (Invitro fertilization) where human life is started (test tube babies); the center for Reproductive Medicine by Prof. Leonardo Almeda and associates, the Victory Laboratory operated by Prof. Greg Pastorfide, Joy Novero and their associates. A third consortion is being organized.

In these modern high technology facilities the drama of life has been perfected hundreds of times resulting in normal babies. All over the world however there may be more than four million test tube babies started in the laboratory since the pioneers Prof. Patrick Steptoe and Prof. Edward started the life of Baby Louise Brown in 1978 in a laboratory in England: A sperm was caught by the tail and injected in a waiting egg harvested in the laboratory and a new life has begun and is now a healthy woman.

In spontaneous human reproduction, a sperm fertilizes an ovum. In a few hours to a few days a fertilized egg develops. While cellular development progresses, the fertilized ovum negotiates a trip for 3-6 days through the fallopian tube to reach the endometrial cavity (inside of the uterus where the pregnancy grows) to be implanted and grown to a full term baby.

Everyone of us who survived the perils of pregnancy and delivery started when the sperms of our fathers fertilized the ova of our mothers and enjoyed life till these moments in time. Four million others started by fertilization in laboratories of high tech Reproductive Centers.

Life starts at fertilization but when does a person start, that’s another debatable issue.