In a very useful, polite but authoritative rebuttal of an apologia for the killing of the unborn in an Irish newspaper late last month, the distinguished Irish scientist, William Reville, concludes that while science remains a very long way from a fundamental understanding of how the embryo automatically unfolds so unerringly along the long developmental pathway from zygote to adult human it has already demonstrated that conception is the start of a biological continuum for each individual life that extends in an unbroken line until it terminates in death at the other end of the continuum.

“At every stage along this continuum each individual life has the full human properties appropriate to that stage. Pro-choice advocates refer to the early embryo as a potential human being. But in my understanding, this definition is wrong.  In my opinion, the correct description of the embryo is a human being with potential.”

Read the full article in the Irish Catholic newspaper here.

William Reville is an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at University College Cork.