Ask A Scientist: When does life begin?

NEWTON -- Argonne National Laboratory, Division of Educational Programs ^ | November 1991- May 2000 | US Dept of Energy

[trubluolyguy]

When I worked in a Maternity I learned that you can (or could at the time with the technology involved) pick up fetal heart sounds at 8 weeks. That, in my book knocks out all late term, mid term and most 1st term abortions right there.

[AmishDude]

Oh, I see. You misunderstand me. Life always begins tomorrow -- when they serve the free beer.

[Torie]

I don't do male mathematicians. I prefer female artistic types. Sorry.

[JABBERBONK]

Since science has the ability to take the earliest developed embryos from a variety of animal species, and be able to tell what is human, and what is not {via enzymes, and proteins}, your argument fails.

[AmishDude]

I prefer female artistic types.

It's best when the man is the smart one in a relationship.

[A message]

"Life which doesn't depend upon the use of another person's body begins the day after you're born."

WOW! What? is there a cooling off period or does the newborn need a waiting period for background checks.

"The involuntary use of another person's body is normally called "slavery".

Double WOW, fetal slavemasters, words fail me reading these thoughts.

[TAquinas]

"When does life begin?"

At the very beginning, ie, at conception.

[beavus]

If we're going to take the "we're all just segments of a continuum" approach, then there are no individuals, per se, and thus no individual rights.

That is false thinking. A rainbow is a continuum on the electromagnetic spectrum, but that does not mean that red and blue do not exist as distinct colors. Likewise, just because life is a continuum does not mean that sperm, zygote, baby, and adult are not distinct stages with different properties.

A continuum does not preclude differences along the continuum. It does preclude any meaningful sharp division between those differences, however.

[beavus]

I've heard it said not until 40.

[FormerLib]

Basic biology tells me that cell division equals life; as to whether or not it is human, do a chromosone check and identify what else if was.

[beavus]

Conception is the beginning of a human life. This is what I believe and if you don't like it, too bad. As for 'shame on you', I believe the shame goes to those who would end it.

I won't argue about this so save your breath.

If you haven't a good reason for it, there is no point in arguing about it. But perhaps that is for another debate--why people are most passionate about their least substantiated assertions.

[minus_273]

even more when a sperm fertilizes an egg to form a fetus, it is a UNIQUE human. Biologically, this fetus has a gender, hair color, a face, a height, a risk of future diseases, eye color and depending on who you ask, personality. I think that is enough to answer all questions.

[mc6809e]

Conception is the beginning of a human life. This is what I believe and if you don't like it, too bad. As for 'shame on you', I believe the shame goes to those who would end it.

I won't argue about this so save your breath.

Translation: you won't think about it.

Are you scared of what you might find?

[mu3tausim]

Hmm...if I were God, when would I put the soul into the newly created human?

From a Christian viewpoint, if we could answer that question, then I think we would have the answer to "when does human life begin?" and/or "when does a person attain rights?"

I don't think we'll ever have that answer, although I seem to recall hearing about some crazy doctor doing experiments to determine when and if the soul leaves the dying.

[beavus]

When a pregnant woman's unborn child dies as the result of an attack on her, I think it's pretty common now in most states for the attacker to be charged with murder. There doesn't seem to be too much ambiguity about the human rights of the unborn in that situatiion.

That's a great point. But laws are at best end results of ethical positions, not defenses of them. Still, it might be interesting to know the discussions that went into all of those legal decisions. I'd like to think they involved discussions on the meaning of rights, and how we know when they apply to things.

[MarineBrat]

That's a 'nonquestion' to me. If a human sperm enters a human egg it creates a HUMAN!

Shout all you want. It doesn't make it true.

What DOES it make? Certainly not something *other* than a human.

[potlatch]

Exactly! I have identical twin girls and have read that even the 'time' when conception occurs makes a difference in the childs traits.

In other words, if the same egg and same sperm were to conceive a year later, the characteristics of that fetus would be somewhat different. It's an interesting thought.

[The_Commentator]

1. Abortion has never been about women's rights or lack thereof.

2. Human life is a firm biological division. Evolution is a well-thought-out and partially doctored joke which many seemingly intelligent people support and cling to. They do so because they desperately want to believe there is no God (capital G). Why that is and why you think I'm wrong is something for another debate so try and stay on track.

3. The earliest (and smallest) form of human life is the human zygote. A human zygote cannot develop into anything else besides the more intermediate forms of human life we are "accustomed" to. Since it cannot take any alternate paths of development it is--and can never cease to be--human.

4. The second fertilization occurs, the zygote is formed. The zygote is the earliest form of human, therefore the human zygote is entitled to all the rights and protections of a human of any other age.

5. The zygote is entitled to all the rights and protections of a human of any other age, therefore the willful destruction of a zygote or any later pre-birth stage of human being is homicide.

6. No human on Earth has the right to commit homicide against another human. All pre-birth stages of human from the zygote forward are human. Therefore, abortion is a form of homicide.

I expect this to bring a maelstrom of debate from those "seemingly intelligent" people. *Gauntlet falls.

[beavus]

When I worked in a Maternity I learned that you can (or could at the time with the technology involved) pick up fetal heart sounds at 8 weeks. That, in my book knocks out all late term, mid term and most 1st term abortions right there.

Surely it isn't a beating heart that endows a thing with rights! If we were to apply that test, we'd all become vegans or scavengers.

[Coleus]

Does the union of egg and sperm create life or cause death?