It started circa 3 billion years ago. The ovum and sperm are alive. There's no dead stage in reproduction. It's simply a new mixture of genetic material.

But I don't believe that aware life actually begins prior to completion. A person couldn't fly a structurally incomplete plane.

If I am wrong, I suppose I have been the murderer of trillions of sperm. But with that mindset, every time a woman fails to fertilize an egg every month, that too is murder.

Don't know why I got on this rant.......lol. Perhaps it has to do with a verbal argument I was in on the phone with my friend about this.

I think NO ONE really knows when the actually life begins...none of us know when the "spirit" enter the womb. Could be immediately, could be several months later when movement begins, could be right at the moment of birth. Some are quite sure they know...I am quite sure I don't know.

And until they come up with a "pop-up timer" like a turkey has, for a fetus- I doubt we ever will.

Just because a plane is incomplete, does that make it NOT a plane?

It makes it something that will be a plane. If it's only a fuselage, how can you call it a plane?

Leave it up to Peccy to get Dr. Pepper gushing out my nostrils!

No its not murder because if the egg is alive it just dies a natural death if it does not get fertilized. Dieing a natural death is not murder.

But simply fertilizing the egg could have saved it correct? And what of sperm swimming around fruitlessly in a pool of saliva? Just playing devil's advocate, I am all about pro-choice for women.

No, fertilizing the egg transforms it into a completely different life form. In its natural form, it has a natural life span. No one is obliged to combine egg and sperm, and not doing so is certainly not murder.

That would be like saying to every man I meet on the street that I murdered the children that we could have had together because I did not go to bed with him. That's just stupid.

Both sperm and egg are separate life forms. Put them together, and a new life form evolves.

I started loving the life inside me from the time the pregnancy test said yes. I couldnt imagine not considering it life though, especially not after around four months with its first kick.

I agree with you, as I said, just playing devil's advocate here.

Glad I could help with the nasal cleansing there Abra!

Grumman makes aircraft, but they also make bodies for panel trucks (such as the kind used by UPS). Does a box of rivets in their parts department constitute a plane? What if those same rivets get used to make a panel truck body instead?

If a person has an organ transplant, is that person now a hybrid of two different people?

As far as spirits being quickened in a fertilized egg at conception is concerned, how does one explain the spirits of identical twins, who start out as a single zygote?

See, I can throw monkey wrenches all day into pat explanations of life. And the universe is my ally on this one, as it does it all the time.


-Kerry O.

I agree and believe that life starts at conception.

What do you consider to be the qualifications for something to be alive? Your cells are alive. A sperm is not, nor is an ovum. By the same qualifications, neither is a virus. We have the medical technology to create a new person from any cell in your body, so you're committing genocide when you itch yourself. Does that make you a murderer? No. A zygote is not a person. A blastocyst is not a person. I wouldn't consider an embryo a person either. A few hundred to a few thousand cells is not even self-aware.

Arguments about spirit are unfounded, as there is no empirical evidence to even suggest that it exists. Speculation about when it enters a conceived child is akin to speculation on the color of the Loch Ness Monster.

All of this being said, life technically begins when a cell becomes capable of reproducing itself. This happens at or around the time of conception. Does this really hold any significance?

Everything is alive according to my definition of life. If a sperm or an egg do not have 'life' they would not create an embryo when they are joined.

So it depends on your definition of "life."

I could write an entire book on what constitutes "a person" but that is yet another term. You said: "A few hundred to a few thousand cells is not even self-aware."

So is 'being self aware' a requirement for being a person? If thats the case I know a lot of bodies walking around that aren't yet 'persons.'

Life is a growth process and a process of 'becoming' which includes 'becoming aware.' It begins at the quantum level. Everything is part of this process.

Arguments about spirit are not 'unfounded' for some people who have had out of body experiences, or experienced a different space-time. (I have) But I don't 'argue' with people who insist on "empirical evidence" because they lack personal experience and understanding of the dynamics of life and spirit. Arguing is a waste of time.

ok this is my thing i have a problem with...where in the hell does this soul thingy come from....medical and science research mostly believe people use soul as religious or other beliefs,because of one simple fact you can't see it. we have no soul unless we're talking about r&b music....period no souls,they are not in our bodies.

life does 2 start with sperm meeting the egg boys and girls. where the hell do u think it starts? in a petrie dish? well sometimes when the little men in white suits get their sperm guns out...

Okay if you say so.

Yeh, sometimes it DOES start in a petri dish.