In your opinion, when does life begin? Is it at conception, first breath, first discernible

I would say that life begins when a fetus is "viable", meaning if it were all-of-a-sudden born, that it would survive, or have a good chance of surviving.

I'm not a doctor, just my ideology-free guess.
 

Birth, obviously. If it's conception then the government owes me 9 months of back Social Security checks.
 
AZ Jim said:
The minute the baby takes a breath...
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This is when personhood begins but life is a bit harder to specify.

For example, my sister had her first child die in her womb.
To die, something must first be alive.

Her baby boy died at 30 weeks of gestation. Her second baby, a girl, was born at 28 weeks and is alive today.
Viability of a foetus extends to even earlier stages of development as medical care continues to advance.

I rely on the rule of thumb that a new life begins at conception but personhood requires breathing, i.e. first breath.
 
Warrigal said:
This is when personhood begins but life is a bit harder to specify.

For example, my sister had her first child die in her womb.
To die, something must first be alive.

Her baby boy died at 30 weeks of gestation. Her second baby, a girl, was born at 28 weeks and is alive today.
Viability of a foetus extends to even earlier stages of development as medical care continues to advance.

I rely on the rule of thumb that a new life begins at conception but personhood requires breathing, i.e. first breath.
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That sounds logical. I have to agree.
 
I agree with the majority...viability should determine legal status. As for my spiritual beliefs...I think we gain our soul at first breath. I also think it leaves us with our last. Breathing is life...

[FONT=&quot]Mary Christopher Apr 2014[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Breathe[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Breathe in,
Breathe out.
Take a deep breath.
Keep breathing.
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
What am I going to do
When the only reason I was breathing
Was you?
[/FONT]​
 
hollydolly said:
I was born at 28 weeks... Still born... and one of a twin...they revived me, unfortunately not my twin brother.. I have no idea if he was already dead in the womb or died during the birth...
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I was told I was 3 months premature. Was fortunate to have been born in Cuba, where in the early '50s they had a nurse one-on-one with preemies. They did not oxygen tent preemies like in the U.S., where a lot of premature babies were dying or being severely damaged by the constant oxygen feed. The doctors there in Cuba said that if the baby turned blue, the nurse would give it a shot of oxygen with the mask.

I hope you haven't suffered any, due to the lose of your twin.
 
The question is why are you asking when life begins? Is it in scientific terms? In religious (and which religion's) terms? In medical terms? In Legal terms. In theoretical terms? Other terms. The answer is going to be different in the way you want to express the event. Theoretically, it's possible to keep one cell alive until it's able to live on its own, but realistically we can't do that now.

It's possible to take DNA from a dead father, and insert it into the cell of the mother. So figure that one out. Is his DNA "alive" or just a chemical ?
 

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