Biologically, an individual human life begins at conception, with the formation of a new human organism with his or her own unique genetic code, and programmed to develop, be born, and live life.

Although completely dependent on the mother, the unborn child is never part of a woman’s own body.

New Zealand law only recognises a baby as legally a “human being” when “born live”.

Morally and legally, many societies (including New Zealand) have seen unborn children as deserving of at least some legal protection.

Many people and societies have felt that unborn children who capable of being viable if born are deserving of the highest degree of legal protection.

If a society decides however that an unborn baby has no human rights until “born live”, unborn children are left without any foundational legal status and protection and are vulnerable to legislation permitting abortion at any stage of gestation.

Author: Dr Stuart Lange

Dr Stuart Lange is the National Director of the NZCN and is a Senior Research Fellow at Laidlaw College, where he was formerly Vice Principal. Stuart wrote and presented the historical DVD documentary Te Rongopai: 200 years of the Gospel in New Zealand, 1814-2014.