When does life begin?

When something become self aware.

This is a toughy, but I agree - it's really important to the debate of abortion, because this pretty much is the key deciding factor on whether or not someone's okay with it.

People forget so easily that NONE of us should be "okay" with murder, but depending on your answer to this question, you may consider something completely different from the next person "murder".

For example, you can talk about the horrific loss of a beautiful, innocent life, brutally murdered in the womb, until you're blue in the face, if someone thinks it was just a fertilized egg and not a human life, it won't make a lick of difference to them. Doesn't mean that they revere life any less than you at all. They hate murder of innocent life just as much as you.

Personally I'd say it's tough, but I generally opt for the "first trimester abortions and extreme medical risk / extreme circumstances in 2nd/3rd trimester ONLY" option... but life? Hrm... I think a fetus with a heartbeat is *potential* life, but it's not until the fetus is independent of the mother that I'd truly consider it its own life-form. Just my own thoughts, though, and I don't try to push this idea on anyone.

tough question

Everything that is and everything that was or will be is all the way its supposed to be. Therefore everything is supposed to be the way it is, that being said, what's the difference in killing an unborn child and a child that dies at the age of eighty, we all come back again, it doesn't matter we all die and we all come back some how. Just my beliefs

Life is in something as simple as a plant. It doesn't necissiraly have to be anything complex for it so be alive. I would say conception, as soon as it is created it becomes a living thing. Which is why I don't believe in abortion. To me, a human life is a human life whether they have been around for 40 years or 15 seconds, who is to say one is more important than the other?

No brain, No human. If it has conciousness, and the ability to distinguish pain, life, and death, it's alive. Also even by the christian bible standards, god didn't create any of you(I don't believe in god, just proving a point). The bible said god created adam and eve, so christians should believe that we came from a long line of inbreeding(ridiculous). Anyway.....If you want an abortion, you should be able to have one IF the embryo is not possible of the 7 basics of all living organisms(metabolism, made of cells, homeostasis, react to environment, as a species evolve, able to create or find sources of energy(eat), and must be able to reproduce).

I'd say when the heart beats and the brain waves are pulsing. But, that's not conscious living. I have no problem with abortion. A fetus cannot want or miss what it does not know (life).

Living cells, just like what a fetus is comprised of, are squandered every day by human intervention without any remorse.

After you graduate haha

From a biological standpoint, it begins at the moment the baby's heart starts beating. Up until that point, the baby was completely dependant on the mother for blood flow, increasing the workload on her heart. It is technically nothing more than a parasite inside the mother's body.

Definition: *par·a·site* An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense.

I believe at conception, because although you grow into more and more cells, your original make-up is from the sperm and egg joining. That's where your DNA comes from, that's completely individual.

I'd disagree with that only if your DNA changed as you aged, but since it doesn't, then you're you from conception, so that settles it for me.

Just to add, I'm not anti-abortion either. Just being logical.

When the kids move out and you've paid off the mortgage.

Technically, at birth.

When I think about it, life began at the beginning of all life assuming all life started in the same place. It's like an unbroken chain to me. An older form of life creates its newer form while it is still alive, so when did life die to begin again?

When does the human fetus really become a human that should not be aborted? I really don't know. I'll say when detectable brain waves occur, because that implies some sort of independent thought.

Good question.

I for myself think when the being starts to have feelings; I don't know when that is but before it's no life to me!

Might be different with plants^^

Why no option later than at birth. Abortion should be legal until age 5.

It never ends.