Youngsters informed that ‘life begins at fertilisation’ in new children’s book

A pro-life children’s book has been published which teaches children that life begins at fertilisation.

Authors Brooke Stanton and Christiane West published the colourfully illustrated children’s book “When You Became You” in November 2020. They said the book “takes you on a scientific journey through the stages of a human being’s life”.

The first page of the book reads: “Your humanity— the fact that your nature is a human nature— is what you have in common with all human beings. It does not matter what you look like, where you are from, how old you are, how young you are, if you can talk, if you can walk, if you can dance, or even if you aren’t born yet. You are a human being”.

The authors said that no one takes issue with any of these statements except the passage that refers to those not born yet. Stanton described seeing people reading the book who reacted to those words and said, “Oh this is pro-life science”.

“No, it’s not,” Stanton said. “This is actually the real science”.

The authors co-founded Contend Projects, a “secular, nonpartisan, science education nonprofit with the mission to spread accurate information and awareness about the biological science of human embryology and when a human being begins to exist”.

Author Christiane West said: “We can have an impact now on elementary school children and long-term impact on the culture, on the crisis of human life. Having a book that starts them off correctly and hopefully keeps them protected against false information later is part of the goal of this book as well”.

“When You Became You” teaches children that it is a “basic fact” that life begins at fertilisation, Stanton and West said.

“There are countless children’s books that teach children to care about the environment, but children also want to learn about their own science stories”.

Life begins at conception

A survey of 5,577 biologists in 2018 showed that 96% of respondents agreed that a human life begins at fertilization. Steve Jacobs, who conducted the the survey said: “The majority of the sample identified as liberal (89%), pro-choice (85%) and non-religious (63%).”

The leading embryology textbook, T.W. Sadler, Langman’s Medical Embryology states: “Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male gamete, the sperm, and the female gamete, the oocyte, unite to give rise to a zygote”.

Another says: “[The zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and a sperm, is the beginning of a new human being”.

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