Law 1: A person is a living physical/spiritual being created in the image of God, male and female, from fertilization (sexual or asexual) until natural death.
In a Judeo-Christian worldview the human being as such is afforded a special status and dignity on account of being created in the image of God:
So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them
(Gn 1:27)
To be created imago Dei means being endowed with an immortal spirit, a capacity to know and be known by God, a measure of autonomy and free will in the areas of thought and action and moral responsibility that is unique from the animal kingdom. Each attribute separates us from the rest of creation. Because we bear the image of God, all mankind, and, by extension, each and every human life has a “specialness” and worth that demands respect.
From this foundational worldview flows the concept of human dignity and that the human dignity of every person is inviolable. Each human life, from its earliest stage of development, is a unique Person which bears God’s likeness, and should have the same protection of law that is afforded other “persons” in our society. For this reason, all human life should be respected in law. This respect is due regardless of the manner of conception, whether through the marital act (sexual), fertilized “in vitro” (IVF), or through the “ex utero” process of cloning or Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (asexual).This protection and respect should attach at fertilization and extend to natural death.
