Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
If you look at another factor, as soon as the sperm and the old egg collide and the cells start to split, I think at some level you have to acknowledge that it is a life form, on the level of a multicelled lifeform, but it does fall under the definition of life, it to some extent takes breath, absorbs food, and creates waste. Its not sentient for a while, but unlike a cancer, or a bacteria, it will develop sentience. So I think that ripping it out of an environment that fosters this growth is to some extent unjustified murder, especially when you consider that this life has done nothing thats wrong.
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This is actually not true. A zygote does none of those things. Neither does a blastocyst. Most of them are not even done by an embryo. In fact, the first "waste" created by the body does not happen until it is well into the fetal stage, some 11 weeks after conception. First they urinate into the amniotic fluid, and the first stool (miconium) appears in the GI tract only at 16 or 17 weeks after conception. A baby doesn't "take breath" until it is born. It doesn't "absorb food" until the placenta is formed, and begins to provide nutrients to the embryo, which happens around 12 weeks. Before that, the nutrients come from a yolk sac inside the gestational sac.
What about a situation where that life that has done nothing wrong, through no fault of its own threatens the life of the mother? What do you do in that case?