Conception and fertilization are two distinct and individual events

Conception and fertilization are two distinct and individual events. While fertilization can occur either in a lab or inside a woman’s body, conception can only take place in the womb. Conception occurs when a blastocyst becomes implanted or attached to the lining of the uterus where it begins to receive nourishment for continued development. After the first two months of development inside the womb, the term embryo is replaced by the word “fetus,” which applies until birth.

A pregnancy does not actually begin until the process of conception is complete. This process takes several days and can be confirmed by testing the levels of progesterone and hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) present in the mother’s blood. When conception in the uterus is complete, the blastocyst can develop into an embryo. It is very important to remember that conception can only occur inside the uterus.

In vitro blastocyst stem cells never will develop into a baby unless the entire blastocyst is implanted into a uterus—either of the female who donated the egg or that of a surrogate mother. Let me clarify that the stem cells used for blastocyst research purposes are only a few days old and have not been inside a uterus since being fertilized. These cells are not equal to a human life. They have no nerve or blood cells; they have no consciousness.

Research conducted in university laboratories in partnership with Geron Corporation supports the fact that IVF-derived blastocyst stem cells are not embryos because they are not
a complete organism, nor can they be coaxed into becoming such outside the uterus.