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Does life biologically begin at conception?

Does a new person's life "biologically" begin at conception?


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Chuz Life

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From the "Compromise on abortion" thread;

The human fetus is the same animal, the same creature, the same organism from conception to death. No one argues that.

Does everyone agree with myself and Rivrrat that a new person's life "biologically" begins at the moment of their conception?

Yes or no?
 
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When I was 15 I met an Anishnabeg shaman in Toronto at an open house event. He offered a free seminar on what shamanism is and what it means to a lot of indigenious societies around the world. They believe that everything is alive: rocks, rivers, and objects that we have been taught are lifeless.

Sometimes you read novels where people enter a landscape and say that "Everything feels alive".

I guess my point is that what is alive is subjective... really what we are asking is if that life has value to the person being asked. I personally think a sperm is alive, so is an egg. They are cells even if they are haploid. Everything in your body is a living thing.
 
I guess my point is that what is alive is subjective... really what we are asking is if that life has value to the person being asked. I personally think a sperm is alive, so is an egg. They are cells even if they are haploid. Everything in your body is a living thing.

No,.. what I am asking in the poll is whether or not a single human being's
life "biologically" begins at conception.

Asked another way,.. when do they start biologically aging?
 
If you think so, do your factoring and vote.

I haven't voted because I still cannot come up with an answer. I've spent quite some time contemplating this question, which really boils down to, "What life is sacred?" The answers to these questions have significant and, at times, life-changing implications. They deserve more thought than I've had time to give...
 
Yes, but sperm, taken alone, cannot become an individual human entity.

That is true, but each individual sperm contains the potential for human life. And, for most people, that is why unproven human life is so important- an embryo or unborn child has the potential to be something great (even though it has equal potential to create something disastrous). If human life itself was so sacred as to warrant immunity from termination, society would not accept capital punishment.

We value the potential, not the life itself.
 
I haven't voted because I still cannot come up with an answer. I've spent quite some time contemplating this question, which really boils down to, "What life is sacred?" The answers to these questions have significant and, at times, life-changing implications. They deserve more thought than I've had time to give...

To me, all life is sacred on some level- humans, animals, plants, everything. Life must be sacrificed in order for other life to survive. Everything that lives, does so at the expense of something else. Generally, if I don't intend to consume it, or it's not destroying something that I am trying to grow for food, I try not to kill it.
 
That is true, but each individual sperm contains the potential for human life.

A sperm can never become a human without union. An egg can never become a human without union. The potential depends on a chance meeting and really liking each other.;)
 
Life precedes fertilization and implantation, so obviously there is life at conception; whether or not it's the life of a person is up to debate.
 
From a classification perspective, an embryo is considered alive. However, life is worthless to all humans. Every single one of us kills living bacteria in incredible quantities every single day without even noticing. We value sentience and anthropomorphism, not merely being alive.
 
You remind me of someone..
 
Every single one of us kills living bacteria in incredible quantities every single day without even noticing. We value sentience and anthropomorphism, not merely being alive.

I'm personally not willing to give up my saliva and hydrochloric acid so that micro-organisms may live.;)
 
I'm personally not willing to give up my saliva and hydrochloric acid so that micro-organisms may live.;)

So then you don't really value life. You value some life.
 
No,.. what I am asking in the poll is whether or not a single human being's
life "biologically" begins at conception.

As I attempted to explain earlier, it depends on the person and their values. What constitutes life varies. If you are looking for an objective answer you won't find one. I can tell you that from my view, genetically speaking, yes human life begins at conception since the two haploid cells become a diploid and thus a complete genome is created, forming a complete human cell. It then replicates into a complex system until a baby is delivered.

But if you mean life in terms of a vital, conscious person, I would say no.

Asked another way,.. when do they start biologically aging?

I'm not sure. Is a single cell becoming two cells a factor of aging? Or is it stages of development in the post-natal realm? Or is it degradation of the genome over time through environmental factors, causing one to look worn? There are so many ways you could look at it.
 
So then you don't really value life. You value some life.

Like I said, everything that lives requires that something else is sacrificed. My body kills and/or eats what it needs to survive. Those little microbes are doing the same thing. It just depends on which of us wins.
 
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Like I said, everything that lives requires that something else is sacrificed. My body kills and/or eats what it needs to survive. Those little microbes are doing the same thing. It just depends on which of us wins.

You kill microbes far in excess of what you need to survive. You could easily bathe only once a week without risking your life, yet I doubt you do. You could easily survive by eating flatbread to avoid killing yeast, but I doubt you never eat leavened bread either. Humans don't kill microbes to survive, we kill them because we have absolutely no regard for there existence. Humans do not ever consider the bacterial death toll when undertaking an action. Life by itself is worthless to us.
 
From the "Compromise on abortion" thread;



Does everyone agree with myself and Rivrrat that a new person's life "biologically" begins at the moment of their conception?

Yes or no?

Biologically? Sure. I don't really see how it's relevant to abortion policy though.
 
How insane, depressing and backwards a man's life became.

When he doesn't even know when it started.
 
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