Secular arguments for the beginning of life.

Find - "Given that one can easily argue from a completely secular basis that the fertilized egg is the beginning of a unique human life with unique DNA etc., I can only wonder when you consider human life to begin in a way that is both practical and logical."

One might be able to argue that a fertilised egg is the beginning of a unique human life with unique DNA etc. But does it follow that the beginning of a life should have the same rights as a life?

Let's start with the fertilised egg. Unique DNA? yes. Member of the species Homo Sapiens? yes. Potential individual? hmmmm, Maybe. The beginning of a life? Depends.

Allow me to quote from John Harris, The Value of Life because rephrasing his explanation would probably just reduce clarity:

"The moment of conception may seem to be the obvious answer to the question of when life begins. Over any rival candidates it seems to have the decided edge that it is an identifiable event from which point the egg begins the continuous process that leads to maturity. But of course the egg is alive well before conception and indeed it undergoes a process of development and maturation without which conception is impossible. The sperm too, is alive and wriggling. Life is a continuous process that proceeds uninterrupted from generation to generation continuously (or at least sporadically) evolving.

It is not, then, life that begins at conception. But if not life, is it not at least the new individual that begins at conception?

A number of "things" may begin at conception. Fertilisation can result not in an embryo but in a tumour which can threaten the mother's life. This tumour, called a hydatidiform mole, would not presumably be invested with all the rights and protections that many believe spring fully armed into existence at fertilisation.

Even when fertilisation is, so to speak, on the right tracks, it does not result in an individual even of any kind. The fertilised egg becomes a cell mass which eventually divides into two major components: the embryoblast and the trophoblast. The embryoblast becomes the foetus and the trophoblast becomes the extraembryonic membranes, the placenta and the umbilical cord. The trophoblastic derivatives are alive, are human, and have the same genetic composition as the foetus and are discarded after birth.

A further complication is that the fertilised egg cannot be considered a new individual because it may well become two individuals. The fertilised egg may split to form twins and this can happen as late as two weeks after fertilisation."

So much for the fertilised egg being an individual eh? Never mind, says the secular pro-lifer (which, by the way, I've only ever met one of, and they admit that their position is more emotional than reasonable), the egg is a "potential life".

More on potential lives on another day. Must do thesis now :-(