The foetus starts developing his/her fingerprints in the third week after conception, when skin cells start forming. The hand is a bulge with no fingers, it has volar pads (bumps) and the skin has friction ridges. This friction ridge skin is found on the hands and the soles of our feet and has a dual role because it aids grip and helps heat loss from our bodies because the sweat pores are located on top of these ridges. The pattern of these ridges (either arches, loops or whorls) form our fingerprints.

Now the pattern of the fingerprints is affected to where the volar pads regress to and also because the foetus rubs his/her hands and even his/her fingers together and because the space in the womb is constrained. Since there are so many factors influencing the finger print pattern, not even identical twins have the same fingerprints. Our uniqueness starts early in the womb. It is true that there is more than one theory when human life starts: a camp holds it starts at conception, others when some development has already taken place while others when nidation/implantation has taken place because till then the tiny cell cluster can divide into identical twins. But since we cannot be sure when human life begins, prudence dictates we should always follow the safer course of action and treat a living fertilized ovum as a human person.

 It is frightening for a human to have the license to kill an innocent, defenceless human person who is not an unjust aggressor.

Joe Portelli

Nadur