LIFE STARTS AT CONCEPTION

Thursday, March 08, 2001
Life starts at egg-sperm stage, Ky. Senate says
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT — The Senate Wednesday night passed a bill to define life as beginning with fertilization of an egg by a sperm.

The legislation creates the definition so people who kill a pregnant woman can be charged with two acts of homicide.

But opponents say it is really an attack on a woman's right to choose an abortion. Abortion-rights advocates say it is only a few legal steps to making abortion fall under homicide laws.

The measure was attached to an unrelated bill about criminal penalties for defacing gravesites.

The legislation must still go back to the House, which can reject the Senate attachments, accept them or ask for changes.