"Wayne B" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 24 Sep 2011 09:57:46 -0400, BAR wrote:

So answer his question. Just when does a fertilized egg become a human?

At conception.

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That's a religious view not supportable by any logic or science. It
even fails the common sense test. You are entitled to your beliefs
as long as you don't try to legislate them for everyone else.

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True ... The Roman Catholic Church defined a human as existing at
conception. At least it used to. Don't know what
the RCC preaches now. However:

I take exception to your reliance on a scientific definition of when a human
first exists as well. Try as I might, I have yet
to find any *proof* based in science as to when a human first exists or
when it transitions from a fertilized egg, fetus
to a "human".

There are many science based papers on the subject and discussions as to the
development of the brain, it's "wiring" and
when that wiring develops connections to the spine and nervous system, etc.
However, none of this science or medical
explanation is *proof*. It's simply consensus. It may make logical sense
based on what is known, but it is still an
opinion, theory and general agreement in the scientific community.

It also presents a bit of a sticky wicket in terms of defining by a period
of time or date as to when the transition from
fetus to human occurs, simply because the development in the womb is not
exactly the same for each fetus, baby or
human ... however you want to define it. One pregnancy could have a
faster or slower development than another. So how can
we arbitrarily (for legal purposes) define when a particular fetus
transitioned to a human? We can't.
So we "average" it. Hmmm. That means we might abort a fetus in one case
and abort a human in another.
Are we and the scientists smart enough to determine that? Do we have the
right?

Lastly, science has been proven to be dead wrong many, many times over the
centuries. At one time the consensus
was that the world was flat. More recently (like two days ago) some
scientists at the CERN facility believe they found
matter that travels faster than the speed of light. (yet to be confirmed,
but I heard about this years ago in another experiment).
If proven to be true, all bets are off in the world of physics and
generally accepted theories.

So ... with no proof really of anything, I think we are all correct to
believe in what we are comfortable with with, (and I agree
with you) that one person's or group's beliefs are not legislated to
others.

Eisboch