> But there's also another question: if the reason for believing life begins at conception is founded in religious faith, which it usually (not always) is, is it right to legislate from that point of view without secular (i.e. scientific) evidence?

How is it a matter of faith, though? I believe life begins at conception, but it's not a religious matter for me. It's a scientific matter and a language issue. We have a fairly good idea (if not a perfect one) of what's goes on physically when an egg is fertilized and begins to develop from then on. It's not a black box operation which we can't analyze.

What's up in the air, in my opinion, is how "life" is defined. Now perhaps there is a precise commonly accepted definition of "life" used in science, but it won't be universally accepted. If it *were*, I think there'd be little argument over when life begins.