When do you think human life begins?

Human life begins the second someone even thinks about sex. People who think about sex and then don't go on to procreate are baby killers!!!

I'm not sure... I've always considered myself to be pro-choice (even though I couldn't go through with it).. but I have read up a little bit on dilation and extraction lately and it makes me sick to my stomach to think about...

when the baby could survive at birth.....which some would call the 2nd trimester.

so no sex for pleasure for you!

I really don't care

sperm meets egg...presto!

I was the first to answer this survey, and I was hesitant to make the first comment. Now that there are some others up there I feel more comfortable stating my "politically incorrect" views.

I think that life begins at the moment of conception. However, I don't see where that is any excuse not to exterminate the little maggots on the slightest whim.

I would describe my position in the abortion debate as: "Pro-Death".

I agree with they; I'm not entirely sure where I stand on this issue these days. It's a really grey area. I'm inclined to say it's when the fetus is viable and could survive on it's own, or with minimal help from an incubator or something (since I think premature babies are viable). But then again, that boils down to being largely a political reason. I think it happens some time after conception, but I'm not sure when. And as Zang pointed out, maybe this question shouldn't have anything to do with the abortion debate. (Not that I'd go to quite the extreme he does!)

Before a baby is born there's nobody on earth who knows that baby yet, except for the mother. That's why I think the mother should be able to choose abortion if she feels she won't be able to care properly for the child. I think that is an unfortunate choice, and I'd like to see people learn more about abstinence and birth control so that unwanted pregnancies could be avoided. I think women should also have to have some counseling about the alternatives before going through with an abortion, but ultimately I think each woman should be able to make her own choice. I think abortions should be legal, but very rare.

Life is eternal.

Life starts at conception, as soon as the cells start deviding.
But that does not mean I'm against abortion.

Anything from conception to about 20 years old, depending on how I chose to define "human" at that given moment

You are a sick puppy!!! Maybe your mother should have been Pro-Death??

I'd be pretty impressed if a dead fertilized egg managed to continue dividing.

I think human life began 75,000 years ago or more.

Each human life begins at conception. I don't know what I think about where this question is heading though.

Definitely at conception.

whenever it's convenient for us to define it to, particularly if the definition supports whatever view we're trying to put forward. I don't think human life is especially important in the context of the way the world works. I think "human life" is an artifical definition we use to describe imperfectly a set of processes we observe.

18 years after birth.

Human life does not begin, it continues.

define 'life'. organic chemical reactions happen early on. a LIFE that includes experiences and meaning doesn't happen until after birth.

Well, it appears I was wrong. I've long believed that most people believed human life began sometime between conception and birth but, since there's no bright line event in there, extremists on the issue had polarized discussion. From these results, I learn that the vast majority are at one extreme or the other.

I think the 'bright event' is when the nervous system gets going, which would be some point after it's formed... arguably even at or after birth, depending on what 'gets going' means... it's all just semantics.

I guess I tend to think it "begins" when the fetus is viable outside the mother's body, whenever that is (I guess around the second trimester). The thing is, I don't really look at it that way. A fetus is alive, in one sense or another, from the moment of conception. The real question is: how long do we feel comfortable killing it? For me, that's basically until it is independently viable.

If your "extremes" are "conception" and "not conception". I think these results show that there are a lot of ways of looking at the matter, most of them far from extreme.

My extremes were conception and birth. The two intermediate points got 1 vote each. Then there's 'other'. I scanned the comments and didn't find a lot of answers (except yours) that suggested people voted 'other' because they wanted to pick an intermediate point other than 1st or 2nd trimester. So I see 26 people who picked either extreme, 2 who picked a time in between, and 15 who picked something else (that is, basically didn't choose). Even if you include all the 'others' in the non-extremist category, there's still a healthy majority (almost 2 to 1) voting the extremes.

Conception and birth are both logical choices, as they're the main "events" in what is otherwise pretty much a continuum. The concepts of first and second trimester are purely artificial, based on external timescales rather than the development of the unborn child.

Other than conception and birth, the only other non-arbitrary points are implantation and viability. Implantation, though, is too close to conception to be relevant to the abortion debate (although it is relevant to the contraception debate, especially for those with strong religious beliefs), and viability itself depends on external factors - premature babies are now surviving at ever-earlier ages, due to improvements in care. If it ever becomes possible to incubate a baby in an entirely artificial environment all the way from conception, then viability would cease to be much of a meaningful concept.

I guess you're right... I actually answered "at conception". I suppose the problem is that there are two issues - it's biological life versus some kind of conscious life or birth of the soul or something like that. That second concept, which tells us when we are allowed to perform abortions among other things, is very hazy. Since I think there is no bright line like the one you mentioned, when someone says "life" I think "conception". But it's not life in a meaningful way. Maybe another survey could ask "when does a fetus become a human being?"?

Oh let's not go there, please!

It's hard to explain...sorry

At birth. And for anyone who is "pro life" I'd just like to know why y'all go out and shoot abortion clinic doctors...isn't that rather ironic? It kind of defeats your pro life beliefs.

Oh let's see, about 99.9999999999999999999999999% of the MILLIONS of people who are pro-life DO NOT go out and shoot abortion doctors! A couple of "bad apples" does not defeat the beliefs of the MILLIONS of people who are pro-life.

lol How did I know that that was going to be the response.
No argument there I'm so for generalizing

:) How do you do that smiley face? I always thought it was :) but it doesn't work when I do it.

I meant to say that I'm sorry for generalizing. Anyways you do the smiley face by doing : and then - and then ) all together that makes

There ya go! woo hoo!

conception

conception