Originally Posted by Okamifujutsu

For those of you who believe life begins at conception, at what point during conception does life begin? Is it when the the sperm first enters the egg? If so, at what depth of penetration does life begin? Is it alive once it gets through the corona radiata, or the zona pellucida?

Is it when their membranes join together? If so, how completely do they have to be joined?

If you think it's when the genetic materials combine, at what point in the combining process is it technically alive? How about when the pronuclei membranes dissolve? When the mitotic spindle forms? When the genetic material is aligned in the metaphase plate? Or when it's seperated and the two new nuclei form?

And keep in mind that all these things are processes, so please specify whether it has to be 100% complete to count as a seperate human being, or if 99.99% is good enough.

If you need reference, Wikipedia is a good place to go.

So, at what point in the conception process does an egg become a person? Or is it just an arbitrary point in the development of a newborn?