MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives is set to conduct hearings to define the beginning of human life, which could help resolve the long and acrimonious debate over the pending Reproductive Health (RH) Bill in Congress, particularly on the issue of abortifacients.
The contentious issue has prompted Bacolod City Rep. Anthony Golez to file House Resolution 509, calling on the committee on health to conduct an inquiry “to answer the question when does human life begin.”
Golez, a doctor, said a majority of medical practitioners believe that life begins at the moment of fertilization or conception, although there is also a school of thought that states that life begins upon implantation in the uterus.
“The country is divided on the definition of when life begins, either during fertilization or implantation period. If the country is divided as to the definition of when life begins, then it is to be presumed that the choices used for fertility are not yet certain whether they are lawful or unlawful as provided for by our Constitution as to the protection of life from moment of conception,” he said.
Golez said it is the prime duty of the state to recognize the sanctity of life and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution.
“The state shall equally protect the life of the mother and the unborn from conception,” he said, quoting the Constitution.
He added that it is also the duty of the state to determine and provide adequate understanding of the basic principle of life and its beginning, as well as to defend the right of couples to establish a family in accordance with their religious convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood.
Golez noted that the Department of Health’s (DOH) responsible parenthood and natural family planning programs are based on four pillars, which are responsible parenthood, birth spacing, respect for life, and informed choice.
The government’s approved national family planning methods are the calendar method, withdrawal, and personal control or abstinence.
“The services offered by the DOH or artificial methods are condoms, IUD, oral pills, injectibles, and other methods,” he said.
He said some sectors view some artificial methods like IUD, oral contraceptives and injectibles as abortifacients or inducing abortion because life for them begins at fertilization.
Golez, however, said there are artificial methods that do not kill life as they prevent fertilization, such as condoms and vasectomy for men or tubal ligation for women.
He said the Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, MedTerm TM Medical Dictionary and the Webster’s New World Medical Dictionary defines the stage of fertilization as the “process of combining the male gamete or sperm with the female gamete or ovum. The product of this combination is a cell called a zygote.”
The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine (1989) and the Dictionary of Genetics, 6th edition, said implantation refers to the attachment of the blastocyst to the epithelial lining of the uterus, its penetration through the epithelium and in humans its embedding in the compact layer of the endometrium, beginning six or seven days after fertilization of the ovum.