In the days before ultrasounds, amniocentesis, IVFs or cloning, the whole notion of when human life began was based on a very simple fact. A pregnancy was believed viable and a baby was deemed alive when the expectant mother felt its quickening – it's first movements.

Until that moment of quickening, there was no way of knowing if the pregnancy might be achievable or if a miscarriage had occurred. But a baby who had quickened, a baby who had stirred with enough vigor to be felt by its mother, was believed to have had its body and soul brought to life. Once this unique, new soul moved within its mother, the family could relax and look forward to the arrival of its newest member. In that straightforward conceptual framework, "to live, and move, and have being" were bound inextricably together…