![]() “Cardiac activity” means that a few heart cells are alive and beating, not that a heart actually exists. If an individual heart cell is alive, it contracts in a rhythmic manner-that is to say, it beats. It’s simple: heart cells beat all by themselves, entirely on their own. The assumption may be easy to make, but it is glaringly incorrect, as is illustrated by the narrative that began this article. ![]() To most people, “cardiac activity” and “heartbeat” sound synonymous, and this mistaken assumption has been exploited by those who wish to deny women their right to an abortion. Other states are following suit as of this writing. Many others have been proposed. The most egregious current example is the law in Texas that states that a woman may not get an abortion after she has been pregnant for six weeks. Specifically, it bans abortion after cardiac activity is detectable. There are many so-called “heartbeat laws” on the books in the United States at this time, laws that outlaw abortion after an embryonic “heartbeat” has been detected. The anti-abortion movement’s cynical “heartbeat laws” are all manipulation, no science It’s biology doing what biology has evolved to do. In short, it is not mysterious, it is not magic. When two independently beating embryonic cardiac muscle cells are placed together, the cell with the higher inherent rate sets the pace, and the impulse spreads from the faster to the slower cell to trigger a contraction. If embryonic heart cells are separated into a Petri dish and kept alive, each is capable of generating its own electrical impulse followed by contraction. Here’s a paragraph about this from the textbook Anatomy and Physiology: We know that they do it, and we know why they do it. It’s so well established that it’s common knowledge, written into textbooks. But other scientists have done so, and that’s exactly what they found: when cardiac muscle cells are placed together, they will beat together. The individual heart cells kind of looked like they were twinkling, with their little, individual contractions.Īs for putting them together to see if they beat together, I didn’t actually do that. ![]() And sometimes, when I looked at them, they were beating. Then I put them into incubators, hoping they would multiply.Īfter a few days, I took them out and checked them under a microscope to see if they were multiplying. I dissected embryonic chickens, took out the hearts, dissolved the connective tissue between the cells, and spread the cells out in Petri dishes along with the food and fluids they would need to be happy. One of my jobs was to culture the heart cells- that is to say, grow them. One summer, I worked in a lab that looked at how embryonic heart cells take up various chemicals. I didn’t really shriek, “It’s alive!” But I did see individual heart cells beating, cells that I had cultured, beating with no brain, nerves, organism, or even heart around them. They just contracted rhythmically-that is to say, they beat-all by themselves.īiologists sometimes have weird jobs. What’s more, when she puts two of them near each other, they beat together! When she moves all of them together, they still beat together, in one great throbbing mass! “IT’S ALIIIIVE!” she shrieks. A few days later, she takes them out and inspects them under a microscope to see if they have multiplied as she wanted.Īs she innocently adjusts her scope, she sees-they are beating. She puts Petri dishes full of them into an incubator to grow. ![]() Such magical thinking belongs nowhere near the laws of a secular democracy Reading Time: 5 minutesĪ scientist is working in her lab, quietly culturing heart cells. The proliferation of anti-abortion 'heartbeat laws' cynically conflate the spontaneous pulsing of cardiac cells with the beating of a heart, and the beating of a heart with the presence of a soul. ![]()
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