The re-defining of key reproductive terminology
A substantial range of the world's most respected medical textbooks use definitions which are close to identical when it comes to defining conception, pregnant and pregnancy. Seven of these are cited in the footnotes.(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) To break from these definitions is to move outside the accepted linguistic norms of embryology. Ideology supplants universal, objective scientific facts.
From the preceding quotes it is evident that conception and fertilization are synonymous. Conception of a new human person is a result of the process of fertilization and marks the beginning of a pregnancy. The need to note this point is primarily a 'political' one - some scientists misuse the term conception. They disassociate conception, and hence the beginning of pregnancy, from fertilization and re-associate it with implantation. (8) (9)
(1) Butterworths Medical Dictionary 2nd Ed 1978 MacDonald Critchley (ed).
(2) Gould Medical Dictionary 4th Ed.1979. McGraw-Hill Book Co
(3) Stedman's Medical Dictionary 26th Ed 1995. Williams and Wilkins (Pub).
(4) Harrup's Dictionary of Medicine and Health Ist Ed. 1988. London
(5) Mellon's Illustrated Medical Dictionary 3rd Ed (1993) New York.
(6) Oxford Concise Medical Dictionary 4th Ed 1994.
(7) Pearce's Medical and Nursing Dictionary and Encyclopedia. 15th Ed. 1983. p. 99 Faber and Faber.
(8) Grimes DA. Emergency contraception - expanding opportunities for primary prevention. NEJM 1997; 337:1078-1079
(9) Bastianelli C, Farris M, Benagiano G. Emergency contraception: A review. Eur J Contracep & Reprod Health Care. 2008;13 (1):9-16
