Andrew Sullivan has been wondering about the mortality rate of newly-conceived human beings, he says, for a section in the book he’s writing. He says today:

Thanks so much for your numerous responses to the zygote question. I’m deluged with information in a matter of hours, so no need for more. I’ll write up a post detailing what I found out for tomorrow’s Dish. But the bottom line is clear: if you believe that human beings exist from the moment a zygote comes into being, there are almost no environments more dangerous for humans than inside their own mother.

The "waste" of nature, as it is commonly called, can indeed be a challenge. However, I’d say there’s an important little point to remember: Anything that’s alive has a 100% mortality rate. There is no environment more dangerous to human beings than planet earth. Sorry. C’est la vie. Literally.

Further, I’d say that if you don’t believe that human beings exist from the moment a zygote comes into being, the burden is on you to demonstrate 1)what the zygote is and 2)the precise point at which a human being does come into being. It’s a matter of life and death, you know.