OB/GYN Interview 3

"It’s a deliberate use of a word that evokes a very emotional response, and conjures up the idea of an actual heart as we know it. At six weeks, the embryo is about seven millimeters long, such that the flicker made visible by ultrasound technology is about the size of a pencil tip.

From very early on, different cells are programmed to do different things for what is eventually a fully functioning human body. These are cells that are programmed with electrical activity, which will eventually control the heart rate. They send a signal telling the heart to contract, once there is a heart.

In order for a fully formed heart to function properly, it has to communicate with the neurologic system, so the brain has to be developed enough to send signals to the heart to speed up, slow down, to function.

Part of the effort behind popularizing 'heartbeat bill' as a term is the conservative effort to propose a new, much earlier standard of viability, the term used to describe the point at which a fetus has a good chance of survival outside the womb with access to maximum medical intervention."
- Jennifer Kerns an OB/GYN and professor at the University of California in San Francisco.