It’s nothing short of pure magic! Strands of sugars, proteins and nucleotides become a master electrician, a high school literature teacher or a cherished best friend. This miracle happens 300,000 times every day.

Human embryonic development is the science behind the magic. It starts with two “half-persons,” seeming random genetic material, one set from each parent. Each is unique, making a genotype (genetic signature) different from either parent. When combined, the two halves form one whole new individual, instantaneously unlike any other member of the human race.

That single cell divides and within four days becomes over 100 cells. Each cell is on a predestined path to grow into lungs, a heart, a cerebral cortex or any number of other organs or limbs characteristic of the human species.

The ultimate result will be a body with over 100 trillion cells, an adult sentient being capable of laughing, grimacing, detecting irony and employing sarcasm, able to play pinochle and Pictionary.

Scientific understanding of embryonic development has come a long way since 1973, the year the Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade decision on when life in the uterus can be terminated. This knowledge extends beyond scientists, as public understanding of embryology has also increased.

One watershed event since Roe was the Public Broadcasting Service’s (PBS) Peabody- and Emmy-award winning NOVA program titled “The Miracle of Life,” which in 1984 exposed the world to never-before-seen images and perspectives on human embryonic growth.

“The Miracle of Life” became NOVA’s most-viewed episode of all time. PBS followed it in 2001 with a sequel titled “Life’s Greatest Miracle,” taking advantage of stunning new micro-imagery by Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson.

“Life’s Greatest Miracle” is now streamed globally into classrooms depicting in high resolution the real-time development of a human from embryo to newborn.

Attitudes vary on when society should act to protect unborn life. But the bright line of “viability” created in Roe v. Wade, once perceived as Justice Blackmun’s appeal to science, is popularly held today as an antiquated legal fiction.

Emma Green, writing in the Atlantic, notes that “scientific progress is remaking the debate around abortion. When the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, it pegged most fetuses’ chance of viable life outside the womb at 28 weeks.” Green observes that “today’s prospective moms and dads can learn more about their baby earlier into a pregnancy. When they see their fetus on an ultrasound, they may see humanizing qualities like smiles or stretches.”

In-utero testing can now routinely determine gender at 10 weeks. Other genetic markers, such as hair and eye color, left or right-handedness or susceptibility to certain diseases can also be identified much earlier in pregnancy.

Just last year, Curtis “Poodie” Means was born in Alabama, at the record short term of just 21 weeks, one day. Curtis, who weighed 14.8 ounces at birth, celebrated his first birthday this last July. He joins 2-year-old Richard Hutchinson, of Wisconsin, born exactly a year earlier at 21 weeks, two days.

This changing science is what led New York Times columnist Ross Douthat to write, “We know from embryology, in other words, not Scripture or philosophy, that abortion kills a unique member of the species Homo sapiens, an act that in almost every other context is forbidden by the law.”

Whether the Supreme Court repeals Roe v. Wade outright or simply updates Justice Blackmun’s supposed “science,” we’ll know only when the pending Mississippi case is decided next year. But Idaho law already recognizes stopping a beating heart as ending a life (possible at six weeks into pregnancy). The court’s new look at Roe could easily be the trigger that makes that law take effect.

If that happens, Idaho could be among the first states where “life’s greatest miracle” is afforded the right to work its magic.