When does life start?

A controversial question which still doesn't have a definite answer.

Perhaps it would be easier to answer this question if we first figured out when life ends?

Life used to technically end when the heart stopped, but then we figured out that the heart can be restarted and the person will come back to life, as long as the brain is still functioning. So now it's considered death only when the brain stops functioning.

Shouldn't then life begin when the brain starts functioning? (I believe the brain starts forming 20-25 days after conception)

I believe life begins at the moment of conception. That is when the electrical impulse that will become brain function first becomes present. That is when the time stamp, or lock, is placed on the beginning of human life in corporeal form. I didn't always think this way, but long careful consideration has led me to this conclusion.

I think this will be an issue that will be at the forefornt in the next couple of years.

Some say it's at conception when cells start to automatically divide to eventually turn into life form.........other say not! This will be decided once again by the SCOTUS..........there will be many unhappy people nomatter which way they decide.

Heres teh trick. It never starts. We are God and come in and out of a fake existence.
If this is a holographic universe than that puts a different twist to this question indeed.

Peace

dalen

my .02 is lfe starts as soon as it would have to be "interupted" to stop it from becoming a baby.

The very first cellular division is my definition, because it is no longer sperm and egg, but a new creation.

Life doesn't "start" and it doesn't "stop." It just changes into different forms. Sperm and egg are both very much alive and motivated. When you die, your larger form loses consciousness, but the individual cells continue to live for a long time, and some bit of you, like the bacteria in your eye jelly, will just live and reproduce and keep going like you were never here.

We're like a waterfall. Our shape remains the same even though we change from instant to instant.

4th month pregnancy.

mod edit: removed inappropriate comment

[edit on 14-2-2006 by sanctum]

life start with the first breath of air, just like the bible said, God breathed life into Adam so Adam wasn't alive until he took he first air into his lungs.

Plain and simple.

life starts i believe when you start thinking on your own, because untill then your choices are being controlled by someone else and you are not yourself.

Originally posted by Enkidu
We're like a waterfall. Our shape remains the same even though we change from instant to instant.

I find Enkidu's response to make a lot of sense.

But then the question is: is it wrong to terminate that life via abortion?

What if a soul is choosing to inhabit that embryo?

Then again, what if reincarnation is true, then that soul could just inhabit another body anyway so would it really matter, right?

Oh my I think I've gone cross-eyed!

I am against the death penalty.

I am "Pro-Choice". But I am against abortion.

Am I confused? No.

Although I do believe that life, or at least the potential for life, begins at conception, I recognize that not all living (or potentially living) things are destined to live equally long. Fruit flies do not live as long as elephants. people, generally, do not live as long as giant tortises. Yet all are aliveand all became "alive" at thier conceptions.

So the question, though posed in relatively benign terms, is just a fey method of asking "When is OK to KILL a HELPLESS, INNOCENT CHILD-TO-BE?" While appearing reasonable and merely intellectually inquisitive.

A rather pseudo-sophisticated rhetorical device oft employed by mid-level debators.

My considered reply to the subtly unstated, yet decidedly implied question is this:

Despite the inherent potential to develop into an independent creature at some point in the future, at conception, and for sometime thereafter, the clump of cells which may at some point become recognizable as a human feotus, is, for all intents and purposes, parasitic organism; dependent upon its host (the female) for its survival.

Therefore, despite any contribution to its existence made by the father/male, since the mother's body is serving as the host, and is therefore intimately affected by the demands of this particular/peculiar parasite, the fate of the feotus is left to the mother/female's perogative to decide.

However, I would add the following caveat: The fate of the feotus is for the mother to decide as long as the continued physical existence of the feotus is dependent upon the participation of the mother.

In other words, as medical science advances, it is my hope that feotuses will be possible to harvest at increasingly earlier stages of development and possibly brought to term; with the consent of the parents.

In several places the Bible defines life as breathing, and I found no place where it defines life otherwise. For example, Genesis 2:7, which also defines the entrance of the soul: “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul”. Other references are Ezekiel 37:10, I Kings 17:17-21, and James 2:26. Since a fetus doesn't breathe, it isn't life and doesn't have a soul, according to biblical definition.

If God created the whole world, then he created the guy that knocked up the young naive vulnerable teenager, and the the abortion clinic that the little girl went to on her bike when the guy never caled her again. What is funny to me is that the main groups that gripe so much are the religious conservatives that should be the last to judge. Plain and simple, if God created this all, then he created the abortion and everything that goes with it. God does not make mistakes, nor does he need feeble minded people to fix the mistakes he doesn't make. This is all God's plan, so stop messing with God's plan. Make sense? I think so too. AAC

Originally posted by marg6043
life start with the first breath of air, just like the bible said, God breathed life into Adam so Adam wasn't alive until he took he first air into his lungs.

Plain and simple.

I totally agree..

And i agree with myself that i remember the time before i was born... I was flying above a park - in the city i was born in....
And i Agreed that with myself a long time ago... So i couldnt agree more.
And i agree that i agree on that...I really do.

In terms of life - we have breath... Breathing in, and breathing out. That is life... Pha-duu...phaaa-dhuu...LOL*
When it comes to artificially breath - from a machine. From birth taken place to soon... What do we call that?...

A shame? or is it good luck, we have people who invent those machines?

And when Doctors deside to cut a hole in the woman stomac... To take out the fetus... Or child. We have names for that too.

The entrance to life is an - one time life experience... On behalf of our self.
The exit of life is an one time life experience on behalf of our self..

And it continues - through many life cycles.. You just can't remeber it, can you..?

I totally agree with myself that most people can't remember anything - though i have heard wild stories..I really agree...

Originally posted by AnAbsoluteCreation
If God created the whole world, then he created the guy that knocked up the young naive vulnerable teenager, and the the abortion clinic that the little girl went to on her bike when the guy never called her again. Make sense? I think so too. AAC

So - infact we are God's second hand..Brain and heart - feet and legs? That later invented the abortion clinic.

Why do some men freak out like that? - who told them to do such things?

And suddently i realize this whole world is sick. That there is an natural spirit - or a natural idea behind it all....
But we don't live by that natural idea... And how come we don't live in a natural and harmonic world? (yet)

That is Money and power - greed and lies...
Everyday children teenagers - grown up woman and men, fathers and mothers goto work unless it is holliday... And we pollute this planet like we where a plauge...
Likewise we can start talking about AIDS - Birdflue and malaria... So is that also the creation of God?

must be...?

Or if not.. Then what is this place? Is this place hell?

When God allow us to kill and murder... In the name of something...
Are you people really sure there is a God? that tells us such things as kill and make money? Go wash you kitchen - Clean up your mess... Drive your car and go find a suiteable husband.

Or kill your unborn child...

Is that really - the kind and mecryfull God that throw these thoughts at us..??

Or is it in the moment of truth we deside that it it right - and suit us best...To rape - or make cartoons? blow up world trade center.. Blow up London subway..Blow up just to make a statement...

To haul hell down on your ex-boy or girlfreind - so they might commit suicide? That might also be murder... Cause it didn't suite us. It didn't feel right...

And we can't compare...Things like that - cause it dosn't feel right - or it is outraged wrong!?! - And we do everything we can to fit into this mess...Unless we try not to - Or deside not to do so...Cause it dosn't feel right...

And all our "world-leaders" as they are named by - run around looking mad and serious - while the world just crumble into a ZOO-like machine... A world-garden full of anger and false-ness.. Cause we gotta fit our mind into the system - and just play along and survive...

Going to fast - Can't see it happend...!! Must comply to the need of our service.. Must wear nice cloth - must "not" smell bad.. Must look nice.

Why did that guy do that to this teenager? Did he use he's brain.. Figured out that he could just leave her there - with a fetus in her stomac...On the sidewalk.. I don't agree with that guy..

And i think - people aught to learn how to think...

Cause i know... most people - don't have an inner voice... I have made investigation... long time ago.. That there is a difference in the human mind. And it is not just for woman or man...It's both sexes..

You can have an inner voice - that is completely soundless...But yet you can hear it's words... And that is you thinking - yet i meet people who can't recognize that - at all.. Some people have NEVER heard the voice of theire own mind.
And you know why??

They never had to.
A big Mystery hides inside the human body... And sure... there is life after death and life before death... Else we would not exist... Plain and simple

And breath - is life...For humans.. We use loungs...

And the reason we have laws is bascially because people don't spend much time thinking... Cause we don't learn that in schools... Or on any sorta learning facilities..or clinic's.. We just ain't got tha time to think. Leave it to the conspiracy people.. LOL* (they are all wrong anyway)

We live in a world for kings and qeens - but most of us are acting like peasants...

And that is the 10% of the human brain...

This conversation will end up in spiritual life - and physical life controversy..i think...And i agree with that myself...i totally agree...

life doesn't require self-consciousness as far as i know. but if we consider life as "our life". then i would consider life starts the moment when we have build self-consciousness. not right after the birth, but in the first few years i believe.

when you get your driver's license!!!!

or 8 - 12 weeks

How do we know the breath of life God blew into Adam was air? I believe the breath of life is the Holy Spirit. I have come to believe the 'breath of life' is there from the moment of conception. When we die, we 'give up the (Holy) ghost', the breath of life.

Fish 'breathe' water. Fetuses 'breathe' the fluid sent to them through their umbilical cord from the placenta, that's where they get their oxygen, and everything else that sustains them.

I made my girlfriend (at the time, we never ended up getting married) pregnant 18 years ago. We were both pretty young (I was 24, she was 20). We were using condoms, trying to have our fun, but trying not to have her get pregnant. I was ready to marry her and have the baby, but only if she wanted. She decided to have an abortion. I supported her decision. If things had been different, I might have a child graduating from high school this year.

Choice involves consequences, namely, the loss of that which is not chosen. I support completely informed choice.

Originally posted by Icarus Rising
Fish 'breathe' water.

Fish don't breath Water! They breath Oxygen like all other animals, they have a way to get the oxygen out of the water. Really informed aren't we?

Are you informed enough to recognize a figure of speech, in quotes? I guess not.

What would you call it then? Fish get oxygen from the water by passing it over their gills. Humans get oxygen from the air by passing it in and out of their lungs.

Similar process? Yes, I think so. It is a method of getting oxygen into the bloodstream from the surrounding medium. Crawl back into your hole now, ok?