In Monday’s ruling finding Georgia’s pro-life law unconstitutional, Judge Robert McBurney says that “designating the embryonic ‘heartbeat’ as the start of life” is an “arbitrary” delineation. In a footnote, McBurney argues that it is not accurate to describe embryonic cardiac activity as a heartbeat: “A true human heartbeat requires an actual four-chambered heart, something which does not develop until 17–20 weeks of gestation,” not six weeks, which is when cardiac activity can first be detected.
This claim is false on multiple levels. For one, the heart of the preborn child develops its four chambers around the seventh week of gestation, at which point it is still considered an embryo. Also, the heart is not defined by its four chambers but rather by the function it performs — pumping blood through the child’s body, which it starts doing just 21 days after conception.
Comments