akuma587 said:
Development =/ Life. The egg and the sperm were already alive. I can put my cheek cells in a petri dish and culture them, but that doesn't mean they will ever turn into an organism or anything meaningful. There is no magical transformation from life to non-life, as both of the components of a fertilized egg were alive beforehand. Thus being "alive" by a human standards would have to be something different. These are the most plausible theories: 1) When brainwave activity begins (around end of 1st trimester) 2) When the baby becomes self-aware (later in the pregnancy) 3) When the baby can survive outside the womb (depends greatly, but pretty much without exception no fewer than five months) A baby is definitely already "alive" when it is born, so that theory should be thrown out. |
I know cells are alive, in fact I didn't mention the word alive. I think that at fertilisation, you have created a new genetic code, for a new human being, sperm egg cells try to create a new genetic code, but obviously rarely suceed. However I believe that as soon as the full DNA has been made, that is when it is a 'human', and should not aborted. As at that point genetic tests would reveal the zygote (?) is human, as opposed to an egg or sperm.
