When do you believe life begins?

[Runner Runner]

[ACPlayer]

Life began the first day I got laid.

[kurto]

I actually this this question is too general. What do you mean by life?

I'm pretty sure if I cut some skin off my arm, my skin cells are alive.

A leaf of grass is life.

[lehighguy]

When are you human? When is ending your life different from ending the life of a dog or plant?

[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
When are you human? When is ending your life different from ending the life of a dog or plant?

[/ QUOTE ]

I lean towards birth.

[lehighguy]

If I might ask, why?
I don't really have any clue myself. If I can't define what life is I'm really not sure when it begins. But I would like to here someones reasoning.

[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
If I might ask, why?
I don't really have any clue myself. If I can't define what life is I'm really not sure when it begins. But I would like to here someones reasoning.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's why I asked in the beginning what they meant by 'life.' Asking when 'life' begins and when a life is a human being/person are two different questions.

A skin cell is 'life.' A blade of grass is 'life.' A fertilized egg is 'life.'

This is why I have a problem with the question. You can tell its leading somewhere... but I don't know if I think its asking the right question for where its going.

Assuming this is related to the question of abortion, the question is at what point is the life 'significant' (for lack of a better word.) Clearly this is very philosophical (not to mention, emotional) question.

I think people who think conception is the important moment are concerned about the POTENTIAL person. (though if you take that logic further, every time someone uses birthcontrol, they are stopping the creation of a POTENTIAL person. Or for that matter, everytime a woman produces another egg and she doesn't have sex!?!? I know this is extreme (and extremely silly) yet it is just a matter of pushing the timeline for the creation of a child PRIOR to conception.

When you move forward, from conception, the life becomes more sophisticated and closer to the POTENTIAL person.

One of the standards which I'm comfortable with is when the parasite that is the fetus (I borrowed that from the show House... it made me chuckle) is developed enough that it could live if removed from the host.

That's my thoughts on the subject. I hope that makes sense. I think its a complex issue and not always easy to articulate.

[lastchance]

By definition, life begins at conception.

By definition, an amoeba is life.

[kurto]

In a sense, life begins before conception, as both the sperm and the egg are life. They merely combine and develop into more sophisticated life... no?

[lastchance]

If I remember from Biology, a life form must be able to reproduce, respond to stimuli, metobolism, and growth. I don't think sperm or eggs have metabolism or growth. I could be wrong here though.