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?

Life begins at 40!

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Conception probably begins with the sperm attacks the egg.

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The point at which the life is highly likely to developed into a person. I suppose this is the point when the egg has been penetrated by the sperm.

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When the genetic material of both sex cells combine to form the zygote. This is when the genetic material of the individual is formed its when the person is defined.

It's not just the genetic material, it's the strong potential for that material to turn into a person. Otherwise we would be morally bound to protect cancer cells because they contain human DNA.

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As soon as the sperm touches the egg, period. All the rest of that scientific mumbo jumbo doesn't matter.

The sperm is not life? The egg is not life?

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.

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