Human “Egg Rights Showdown”

What a dumb headline from the AP: “Court Clears Way for Egg Rights Showdown.” No, there is no attempt to give eggs any rights.

The story actually involves the court’s approval for backers of an initiative in Colorado to obtain petition signatures. If the proposal makes it to the ballot and passes, it would declare embryos to be persons from the moment of the completion of fertilization. Clue to the AP headline writer: When fertilization is completed, there is no more egg. Rather, there is a one-celled embryo called in the scientific lexicon, a zygote. A zygote is a unique and integrated human individual with its own genetic identity and gender. It is not an egg.

One can agree or disagree with the political attempt being made here. But no one is attempting to give eggs “rights.” Eggs are just cells. Biologically, embryos are nascent human organisms. That is a distinction with a real biological difference. Whether that factual difference matters morally, of course, is a matter of heated dispute.

HT: Carter Snead