ABSTRACT
Adherents of any religion with a robust view of the afterlife presumably hold that their religion marks out the best way to live in community, since in what they regard as heaven it will be lived in just that way. When sperm and oocyte unite within the fallopian tube close to the ovary, the sperm penetrates an outer layer of the egg known as the zona pellucida. The embryo then enters the uterus and implants in the uterine wall sometime around day seven of the embryo's life. It is worth noting that in order for all of this to occur, the zona pellucida played a very integral part in the survival of the newly fertilized egg. It is the task of this section to address a range of issues concerning abortion that do not bear directly on the personhood of the embryo or fetus.
