When does life begin? - Page 2

DanishDynamite · #11 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffLV

It's a life, but it's not life with potential to become a person until they come togeather. At that point, it is a dormant person. Just like a person in a coma has a right to have their life looked after even though they have no concious though, so does that sperm and egg as it has the potential to come to conciusness.

So the question asked in the OP was wrong? The question was not "when does life begin" but rather "at what point could a lump of cells be said to potentially become a human being"?

Makedde · #12 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanishDynamite

So the question asked in the OP was wrong? The question was not "when does life begin" but rather "at what point could a lump of cells be said to potentially become a human being"?

That sounds like a fairer question. Everyone will have varying opinions of when life begins, and I don't even think science knows for sure.

JeffLV · #13 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Makedde

That sounds like a fairer question. Everyone will have varying opinions of when life begins, and I don't even think science knows for sure.

I compare this to the situation of a person in a coma. They have a potential to come to consciousness, so we protect their life.

Likewise, a sperm and egg, once they come together, has a similar strong potential to come to consciousness, possibly even more so than some comatose people.

This potential exists only when the sperm and egg comes together. Thus a sperm and egg separate are not a person.

Makedde · #14 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffLV

I compare this to the situation of a person in a coma. They have a potential to come to consciousness, so we protect their life.

Likewise, a sperm and egg, once they come together, has a similar strong potential to come to consciousness, possibly even more so than some comatose people.

This potential exists only when the sperm and egg comes together. Thus a sperm and egg separate are not a person.

When the sperm and egg come together, the egg is fertilised. Do you believe this is a potential life? If so, is it a life like yours, or different?

I guess we can also determine whether a comatose person is likely to wake up from the coma, more than we can say for sure whether that embryo will become a fetus, or fetus become baby, etc.

DanishDynamite · #15 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Makedde

That sounds like a fairer question. Everyone will have varying opinions of when life begins, and I don't even think science knows for sure.

Well, that's easy to answer then. A fertilized egg in the womb of a woman has this potential.

JeffLV · #16 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Makedde

When the sperm and egg come together, the egg is fertilised. Do you believe this is a potential life? If so, is it a life like yours, or different?

I guess we can also determine whether a comatose person is likely to wake up from the coma, more than we can say for sure whether that embryo will become a fetus, or fetus become baby, etc.

It's a life like mine as much as a person in a coma is. They are not conscious, but they have a strong potential to come to consciousness. Just as I would want myself protected when I was in a coma, so to would I want my developing body.

Makedde · #17 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffLV

It's a life like mine as much as a person in a coma is. They are not conscious, but they have a strong potential to come to consciousness. Just as I would want myself protected when I was in a coma, so to would I want my developing body.

Many people in coma's do awaken, but many do not, and we know whether someone is likely to become concious again by brain scans. A brain dead person in a coma has no chance of ever becoming concious again, so this person is not the same as a fetus, who has a developing brain, an active brain - would you agree?

beachbum · #18 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 10:58 PM

Quote:

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?

technically, since both the egg and the sperm are alive at conceptions, life doesnt begin again unless both the egg and sperm die when they are joined and then come back to life.

JeffLV · #19 (**permalink**) 04-18-2008, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Makedde

Many people in coma's do awaken, but many do not, and we know whether someone is likely to become concious again by brain scans. A brain dead person in a coma has no chance of ever becoming concious again, so this person is not the same as a fetus, who has a developing brain, an active brain - would you agree?

I would agree, which is all the more reason why this developing body may have even MORE protection entitled to it over someone in a coma, at least as much as those who are shown able to wake up again.

Makedde · #20 (**permalink**) 04-19-2008, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffLV

I would agree, which is all the more reason why this developing body may have even MORE protection entitled to it over someone in a coma, at least as much as those who are shown able to wake up again.

Should the developing fetus be given more rights, though, even if those rights (such as the right to life) interfere with the mothers choices?

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