So, when DOES life begin?

Question

At conception? Upon birth? If the sperm & egg are both alive when they come together, the chain of life is not broken, so isn't it a life at conception?

Answer 1

This question is above my pay grade!!!!!!

Answer 2

life begins at the first trimester of pregnancy,  

Answer 3

every moment.

Answer 4

Life begin with awareness.

Answer 5

When you know that you are going to die....

Answer 6

conception

Answer 7

everyday

Answer 8

Conception. That it when something really starts growing - life

Answer 9

When you have a heart beat

Love & Blessings

Milly

Answer 10

At conception.  

Answer 11

Theres no beginning,

there is no end.

Its so far out

the way out is in.

George Harrison "Any Road"

"Come together, right now, over me!"

Beatles "Come Together"

Thus, according to the Beatles who have the final word on pretty much everything when that sperm hits that egg they come together and form a new life!

Answer 12

My answer would be, at the point of "viability" -- when the baby could feasibly survive outside of the mother.  This method would give the mother some rights early in the pregnancy but would force society to acknowledge that just because a baby isn't on the outside of the womb doesn't mean that it isn't alive.

Answer 13

the breathing life begins at conception. . .the living life is when you become a Christian

Answer 14

When does life begin can be debated endlessly.

The fact is, a woman should have the right to decide what happens with her body and her fetus regardless of when " live begins".

Answer 15

My son's life, I suppose, originally began when I was gestating, I have carried my egg, my half of him, since I was in the womb.

Parts of him are technically 38 years old - that would explain why he's such a five year old smartass at times :)

I think in the grand scheme of things, conception is deemed to be the moment "life" begins, though I appreciate your comments that since the egg and sperm were both alive before they partied, technically it is before that.

It's certainly not at birth - that's one of the pro-abortion arguments, that it is not a baby until it is born. My son was a dearly loved person with a future and a life and a whole world of things he would do, paint pictures, make snowmen, sing songs, run and play - from the moment we saw those two lines on the test.

Answer 16

Conception.

How can it be upon birth?

You can remove a baby from the womb premature, and it will be alive will it not?

The formation and growth of the human baby is one of the MOST amazing things, if not the most amazing thing in the universe. Think about it.

Answer 17

What is Life? The body can be prepared according to Nature's laws. The Universal Intelligence brings together at conception the necessary elements to form the physical body but it is the Spirit that enters the body to give it life.

The body in itself has no life, or central consciousness, it is the Soul/Spirit which animates it, and when the soul finally departs the body is left to be dissolved.

Answer 18

The moment the sperm and the egg become one,life begins thats why abortion is a crime cos you are killing a living thing which is a human being in the making.How the human body is formed in the womb is one of the tremendous things in the universe.

Answer 19

Yes, it is a life at Conception.  As soon as that sperm enters and the egg is waiting... they fuse together and start making a life.  

When birth happens, life begins anew again because the baby is living on its own (breathing on it's own)  

Answer 20

Since we know life ends upon the final cessation of neurological activity, its pretty obvious that it begins with the onset of same, which in the case of humans is prior to the detectability of pregnancy.

Answer 21

SOMETHING begins at conception.  But it's not life.  As you note, both the egg and sperm were quite alive before that point.  At conception what begins is the particular combination of genes that might be used to describe an individual.

Likewise, there are any number of beginnings later on.  There is the first heartbeat, the first brain activity, the first conscious movements, the first breath, the first step, the first memory, and so on for some time.

What I think you really want to know is when that entity becomes a PERSON.  After all, it doesn't matter too much what we do to some random assortment of cells, as long that that doesn't have a drastic effect on a person.  And as long as we frame it that way, it becomes clear that we aren't necessarily talking about a particular biological milestone.  Unfortunately, free of any particular biological nuance it also leaves the question much more up in the air.  What is it that you have to have in order to be a person?

The answer will probably say much more about the person answering than whatever it is that they're answering about.

Answer 22

My humble opinion only:  At the moment the newborn baby takes its first breath.  I wholly support abortion and could not do so if I did not believe this to be the truth. The baby takes a breath and the soul enters the body at that moment.

Answer 23

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

There is no definitive, scientific answer. The legal definition is when you are born. BUT, some months prior is also considered life in most legal systems. The religious definition is basically whenever the soul is created, and if your religion believes in reincarnation, it's even well before that. As far as scientifically goes, technically both the sperm and the egg contain the elements of life well before conception, but on the other hand, if the fetus has no brain or living, working organs, how can the thing be considered alive?

Answer 24

Theoretically, yes.  But an embrio can't live outside the womb.  That's why many consider life to begin at birth, when we can survive outside the womb.

Answer 25

the moment the sperm and ovum merge and fuse together to make a complete strand of DNA and replicate itself, that is the moment where life begin.