While no one is going to make a decision on abortion purely on scientific grounds, we feel that everyone, at the very least, ought to get the facts s… - Harold J. Morowitz

Decisions cannot be made on purely scientific grounds. We can, however, use scientific information to guide our moral and political judgments. No matter which side of the debate we take in any public dispute, we should, at a minimum, get the facts straight and understand the scientific dimensions of the problem.

Even with this abbreviated sketch of the process of fertilization, one thing is obvious. When biologists object to statements about life beginning at conception, they are not splitting hairs or being pedantic. There is no time in the sequence we’ve just described where new life is created. In fact, from the point of view of the biologist, at conception, two previously existing living things come together to form another living thing.

The purpose of this book is to discuss and present evidence for the general thesis that the flow of energy through a system acts to organize that system.