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Current Events Help understand the world by talking about things happening in it |
View Poll Results: What marks the beginning of a human life? | |||
First genetically unique cell | 8 | 32.00% | |
Birth | 6 | 24.00% | |
Other (explain) | 11 | 44.00% | |
Voters: 25. You may not vote on this poll |
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07-23-2006, 01:08 PM | #31 | |
Wearing her bitch boots
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Floriduh
Posts: 1,181
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Having experienced the end of pregnancy in all of its forms (except partial birth abortion), as well as having been adopted, I have some thoughts on the matter. If the fetus could survive outside the womb (even if it is as early as 21 weeks) then I believe it is a human being. If the mother could potentially walk away (ie: give birth without the baby dying), then that fetus has become a 'baby', a person.
If you were of the opinion that the fetus was a human being prior to that point..at what stage would this determination no longer be applicable? Could it even be stretched to include unfertilized eggs and sperm? Because they have the 'potential' to become human beings, just as the unviable fetus does. The concept could reach ridiculous proportions. I don't think there is a scientific way to decide this, it is an emotional, and sometimes religious, determination. If it feels wrong for you, then it is wrong. I am eternally grateful for my three children as well as the fact that my birth mother chose not to abort me. I am also very grateful that I had choices available to me when I (stupidly) got pregnant as a very young woman. Having a baby while working full time to put myself through college (full time at night) with no family or support would have been disastrous for both me and the baby. Many years later, when I became pregnant while single, I had the resources and strength to have and to keep the baby (my oldest son) on my own. I do not regret my choices. I am in favor of stem cell research. The embryos being used will either be frozen indefinately or be destroyed one way or another. The form of destruction will be either human or equipment error, or intentionally once they are no longer needed for their donor's pregnancy attempts. Quote:
If using the stem cells from an embryo that is less than 14 days old is such an issue, maybe all in vitro fertilization should be outlawed because this is the source of the embryos. 24+ eggs are extracted, fertilized and then 2-4 of them are implanted in the woman. The remainder? See above. So evidently it is ok to destroy these embryos as long as it is not in the course of scientific research? I do think that donor permission should be required as I would not want something that came from my body to be used for anything without my explicit knowledge and authorization. Stormie
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07-23-2006, 01:12 PM | #32 |
Lecturer
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 768
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Chicken Egg Splooge
My brother used to have chickens. He served us fertilized eggs one morning and made a point of showing us said eggs before he scrambled them. You could see the sploogy mass of weirdness in the yolk I must admit, I felt a little weird when I saw it. Once they were scrambled, they tasted like any other eggs.
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07-23-2006, 01:15 PM | #33 |
still says videotape
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 26,813
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We've got one egg customer who only wants fertilized eggs. mmmm.. tastes like chicken.
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07-23-2006, 01:17 PM | #34 |
~~Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.~~
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 6,828
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chicken egg splooge = eww
Last edited by skysidhe; 07-23-2006 at 01:21 PM. |
07-23-2006, 01:19 PM | #35 | |
~~Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.~~
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 6,828
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Quote:
p.s. I am glad your brith mom decided to keep you too. See there was a stormie in there! |
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07-23-2006, 01:21 PM | #36 | |
Lecturer
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 768
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Quote:
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07-23-2006, 01:56 PM | #37 |
Bioengineer and aspiring lawer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 872
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The massive dividing line between a zygote and sperm/eggs is genetic uniqueness. A sperm/egg is incomplete, whereas the zygote itself is a totally separate entity from the mother. It depends on the mothers body for nutrients during development but that by itself isn't a good measure of human vs. inhuman. I'm sure no one here would consider someone who's body has degenerated under the effects of cancer or through some other process to be less human because they require machines to supply them with oxygen, blood pressure, nutrients and kidney function just like a fetus does. I'm trying to isolate the exact criteria that give something human rights, such as 'ability to function independently'. Cortical activity is another possible point, after all it is how we determine death but it doesn't address the issue of getting around laws designed to protect people by saying a zygote isn't covered under the laws.
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07-23-2006, 02:31 PM | #38 | |
Snowflake
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dystopia
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Tangent:
Quote:
That's exactly what my wife says about eating meat. IE, there is no "death element" at McDonalds.
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****************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio |
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07-23-2006, 03:34 PM | #39 |
I can hear my ears
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 25,571
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human life never begins or ends. it just is.
if you wanted to have an abortion debate, why not just say so? you say that the crux of the abortion debate is the rights of the fetus/child, as though it were a fact. Is it? What about the rights of the host/mother? Is the baby not a part of her until it is delivered? Should you be prevented from cutting off your little finger if you wanted to because it made some busy body queasy? If we'd just stay out of each others business.......
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07-23-2006, 07:25 PM | #40 |
Bioengineer and aspiring lawer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 872
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This was actually never intended to be an abortion debate. It's exactly what the title says, 'when does a human become human'. Once we had discussed that for a while it would probably turn to stem cells.
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07-23-2006, 07:34 PM | #41 |
Bioengineer and aspiring lawer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 872
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btw, what the heck do you mean by "it never begins or ends".
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07-23-2006, 08:12 PM | #42 | |
Read? I only know how to write.
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 11,933
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Quote:
We routinely kill zygotes, stem cells and other human cells. They are all human life - which religious extremists must deny to impose their beliefs on all others. The emotional want to impose their emotions on all others in the name of their religion. Religious concepts have no place in a logical discussion. Religious concepts are and should never be more than a relationship between you and your god. [big period] No religion or religious teachings should appear in this discussion. This discussion is about life - not religion nor personal biases. As even the pagan gods intended, we are expected to make life and death decisions every day. The only thing that differentiates humans is higher cognizance levels. We make life and death decisions every day as we kill off our own tissues - even bleed - even kill other life forms such as bacteria. Even blood is human life. Zygote is life. Stem cells are biological life. And we make those life and death decisions daily - not some ficticious god. Meanwhile that is completely different from cognizant existence. But again, not one religious bias or extremist rhetoric belongs in this thread. Intelligent life is considered superior to other life forms - a basis upon which some life forms murder or preserve life. Don't kill that insect! You will go to hell! Or instead we use logic and drive those silly religious beliefs from this discussion. Biological life exists in so many forms. And then some lives have more right to live than others. We humans routinely murder life every day - as is required to survive and is defined by the real god - sometimes called nature. Get over and ignore those silly religious concepts as if a zygote was any more special than some other stem cell. It's a cell - nothing more. And like all other living cells, it has a unique purpose. Nothing more. Religious extremists don't like blunt logic which is why religious reasoning has no acceptable purpose in this thread. Are you alive? Fine. That was nature as others routinely determine; who lives and who dies. Using contraception? Then you are killing life that god intended - if using pervert logic that some religions mislabel as facts. And yet that too has no relevance to the question of what is life. The question posed is about reality - not about your relationship with your god. There is no digital threshold that defines life. Mankind even created life by mixing a soup of proteins and electrically sparking them. Where is god in all this? He does not exist. The experiment simply created another type of life. Nothing special. Just a lifeform with less intelligence. And still we chose which and when life will be murdered or survives. We start this decision by throwing away all religious biases and other similar emotions. Last edited by tw; 07-23-2006 at 08:15 PM. |
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07-23-2006, 08:44 PM | #43 | |
in a mood, not cupcake
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Philadelphia
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07-23-2006, 09:12 PM | #44 | |
Read? I only know how to write.
Join Date: Jan 2001
Posts: 11,933
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Quote:
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07-23-2006, 09:17 PM | #45 |
Guest
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Then why did you bring it up?
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