Nowadays it is difficult to determine the precise instant life begins. There are two opposing sides to this issue. On the one hand, there are those who maintain that there is no life in fertilized eggs. On the other hand, some people believe that life begins at conception. This essay will examine arguments for and against the disposition of fertilized eggs.
Those maintaining that there is no life in fertilized eggs contends that life begin at birth when the human soul enters the body. And that is why it is considered that a baby becomes a full-fledged human when the head emerges from the womb. Before then, the embryo is considered as “partial life”.
Some people may disagree with this idea because they considered that life begins at conception. In other words, life begins when the egg and sperm join to produce what is called a zygote. It has been asserted that a zygote is biologically alive since it fulfills the four criteria needed to establish biological life: metabolism, growth, response to stimuli and reproduction.
Some people may say that an embryo is just a potential human embryo and therefore it has no life in that state. However, at the time of conception, the egg and sperm combine to form DNA structure. The fertilized egg is alive and carries human DNA. Thus, it is a form of human life.
Throughout history there have been several "answers" to the question of when human life begins, but one can no more determine the precise instant life begins than the precise instant an infant becomes a toddler, a toddler a child, a child an adolescent, an adolescent an