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36 Conn. L. Rev. 1051 (2003-2004)
What Is an Embryo

handle is hein.journals/conlr36 and id is 1061 raw text is: What Is an Embryo? ANN A. KIESSLING About twenty seven years ago I began to think of attempt- ing the compilation of a Dictionary. I was induced to this undertaking... by my own experience of the want of such a work, while reading modern books of science .... [T7he na- ture of our governments, and of our civil institutions, requires an appropriate language in the definition of words. . .. I. INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM Most scientific and medical discoveries are accompanied by new terms to describe the new processes. Although this imposes the burden on soci- ety of continually learning a new lexicon, new terminology clarifies that the societal impact of emerging technologies needs to be newly interpreted. A notable exception to this general practice, however, has been the failure to develop new terms to describe the new demands placed on mammalian eggs. Approximately 250 times the size of a somatic cell,2 and 4,000 times the size of a sperm head, the mammalian egg is a highly spe- cialized cell which has stockpiled a collection of enzymes and other mole- cules that empower it to completely remodel the chromosomes3 brought in Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, since 1985. Ph.D. in Biochemistry/Biophysics, Oregon State University, 1971; basic research in retroviruses and reverse transcriptase since 1971 and reproductive biology since 1977; Director, Bedford Research Foundation, since 1996. Authored Hu- man Embryonic Stem Cells (2003). The author wishes to thank BRF Trustees: Alan Geismer, Robert Anderson, Jose Cibelli, Rob Kauffmann, John Lee, Loch Jones, Alan Mayer, Susan Moss, Anil Purohit and Leonard Simpson; and BRF Ethicists: Arthur Applbaum, Stanley Bodner, Ken Burry, Norman Daniels, Robert Truog and Daniel Wikler for counsel and support of stem cell research. I NOAH WEBSTER, AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, at Preface (1828). 2 All the cells in the body except for sperm and eggs and their precursor cells, which are collec- tively termed germ cells. 3 Human genetic information is divided into twenty-three chromosomes which are polymers of deoxyribonucleic acids that comprise genes arranged end to end. At the time cells divide, individual chromosomes are tightly coiled and can be distinguished from each other; at all other times, they are loosely coiled, allowing their genes to be more spread apart. There are two copies of each chromosome in somatic cells, one from the father via the sperm and one from the mother via the egg. Mature sperm

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