Blighted ovum question? did the baby ever exist?

Not as such.: A fertilized egg was present at some point, however for some reason it never developed into an embryo, only resulted in a gestational sac and rudimetnary placenta.

Define baby: I believe one legislature just failed to pass a law stating life begins at conception, an interesting idea but one fraught with problems. The blighted ovum is one example of why legislatures need to stay out of this issue. Here a sperm fertilized an egg with just enough information to start the process, but not enough to complete the job. Study of the shed debris often shows chromosome defects.