It is the contention of many e-mailers that yes, indeed, nature acts brutally and that has no bearing on the question of when life begins. If we are arguing “from nature,” then there’s absolutely no reason not to do any kind of research on any kind of human creature — because nature is brutal, we therefore can be brutal too. We can do any kind of research on humans living or dead or in utero, we can use embryos as basketballs if we so choose.
I don’t accept that logic, because I assume that there is a moral force in the universe (I’m not calling it God, in deference to Robbie George), and that his plan — which often is or seems inexplicable to us mere humans — is not, in the end, brutal. If “life begins at conception” believers whWhich is why in the universe I think we live in, the moral force would not create massive numbers of living human beings in embryonic form only to snuff them out.
I could certainly be wrong. But science isn’t going to provide me with the proof of that.