Does life begin at conception?
No, it doesn’t. Life (as in, personhood) begins at viability when the fetus is able to survive on its own. Many “pro-lifers” will argue that, since it is genetically complete and has its own set of DNA, then it is ultimately a person. On the surface, this appears to be solid evidence of person hood… BUT, on the other hand, so do strands of hair, blood samples, ancient fossils, etc, and last I checked, those were NOT considered “people” by ANY ethical, social or moral standards. “Pro-lifers” will then argue that none of those things have the potential to grow into a sentient being… Notice that this is a complete change of argument: The “pro-lifer(s)” in question are no longer claiming that genetic completeness is a sign of person hood, but rather the potentiality to grow into a person denotes person hood, and that is where “pro-life” doctrine completely falls flat because, in reality, A with the potential to become B does NOT equal B. In other words, a POTENTIAL is NOT an ACTUAL! A
