It depends on what you mean by life. I guess, you could say that, technically, your life begins at conception, because then an organism (at first just a cell) can be singled out as you. You can also say, that there is life before conception, if one says that the sperm and egg cells are themselves alive.
You could also move away from such a biological view of things, and understand the word life as something referring to the totality of experiences and emotions of one individual. Then, maybe, life does not begin until some nerve cells have been formed.
If, instead, you mean human life, as in something that is regarded by others as human life and should be shown respect and compassion, I would think it depends on how you look at it. By that, I mean, whether, when you see a picture of an embryo or a fetus, it then looks like a small human being or looks like merely a collection of cells.
I think it is a bad idea to try to figure out an exact moment at which a "life switch is turned on" by means of reasoning.
When do you consider life to begin?
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It depends on what you mean by life. I guess, you could say that, technically, your life begins at conception, because then an organism (at first just a cell) can be singled out as you. You can also say, that there is life before conception, if one says that the sperm and egg cells are themselves alive.
You could also move away from such a biological view of things, and understand the word life as something referring to the totality of experiences and emotions of one individual. Then, maybe, life does not begin until some nerve cells have been formed.
If, instead, you mean human life, as in something that is regarded by others as human life and should be shown respect and compassion, I would think it depends on how you look at it. By that, I mean, whether, when you see a picture of an embryo or a fetus, it then looks like a small human being or looks like merely a collection of cells.
I think it is a bad idea to try to figure out an exact moment at which a "life switch is turned on" by means of reasoning.