DISCLAIMER: This is a thought experiment regarding a LEGAL issue, not a moral or political quandary. My own personal beliefs are that life is a continuous chain and neither conception nor viability nor birth constitute the beginning of “life” per se. But as an individual organism, with all its philosophical and theological elements, life does begin at conception. But the law is a different matter…

What if the law actually dictated that life begins at conception? Let’s think about this logically. What are the law’s responsibilities to both recognize and protect the blastocyst from the earliest moments of conception?

First, the Fourteenth Amendment must be altered. As it stands, the Amendment declares, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Clearly, the Constitution defines persons subject to the protection of the law in terms of birth (or naturalization) and not conception. Alas, the Fourteenth Amendment must be altered by a 28th Amendment that shall read: “Section I of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution shall be altered to read: ‘All persons conceived or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof… nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. A person is defined as a conceived organism residing in the jurisdiction in question.”

Second, the government must legally acknowledge the conceived organisms over which it extends protection. Thus, all conceived humans must receive Conception Certificates, to replace the current Birth Certificate (which now represents a relatively meaningless legal non-event where the legally recognized human being simply transports him or herself from the womb to the delivery room.) Moreover, the mother is now legally considered the “Incubator” during the time in which she possesses the fetus; she has no privileged status over the fetus other than the sorts of parental responsibilities normally accorded to birthed children. All legal documents listing age (i.e. driver’s licenses) shall date to the moment of conception, not birth.

Third, miscarriages now must be accounted for under law as natural deaths and must be investigated by state health boards to determine if the woman illegally and wrongfully conspired to kill the unborn child. If the state medical examiner determines that the embryo was discharged through forces outside of the Incubator’s will, the state will list the death as a “natural cause” and will list the mother as a “potentially destructive Incubator” on a state watch list. In those cases, the miscarried embryo must be given a Death Certificate. If the state determines that the Incubator’s (mother) negligent behavior – including the consumption of alcoholic beverages or residence near and exposure to environmentally harmful pollutants (i.e. many industrial areas) – then the State’s Attorney shall prosecute the Incubator (mother) with Manslaughter or Negligent Homicide. Incubators (mothers) who deliberate terminate the embryo’s life through abortion – including in cases of rape or incest – must be charged with First Degree Murder and subject to the punishments ascribed by the appropriate jurisdiction – including the death penalty.

Fourth, since the government is required to extend legal protection to conceived human organisms, it is in the state’s interest to ascertain the exact moment when that legal protection begins. However, it is commonplace that the Incubator (mother) is unaware of her incubation of a legally distinct organism until five to six weeks after gestation. Since the Incubator is ignorant of her own legal responsibilities before missing her period, the state must use other mechanisms to determine the existence of a conceived child. To do so, the state must order that all women who perform sexual intercourse – with or without birth control – must subject herself to mandated pregnancy tests after each intercourse event. When the state-administered pregnancy test determines the existence of a conceived embryo, the Incubator (mother) must register with the state as an official Incubator to be monitored for compliance with all fetal protection ordinances.

If this sounds like a dystopia, it should. But if the law is going to say that individual life begins at conception, it behooves those who hold that position to think through the radical expansion of state authority (and diminution of women’s autonomy) that necessarily follows.

There is a legal argument to be made against abortion. But that does not necessarily require the legally dubious notion that legal protection must be afforded “at conception.”