Human life begins at conception. Isn abortion therefore wrong?
There is no single answer to the question of when life begins. That is why each woman must be free to make a decision about abortion based on her own moral, ethical, and religious beliefs, including her beliefs about when life begins. The critical question is who should decide. NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin believes women and not politicans or the government should.
The question is not really of whether life begins at conception, but whether there is life before conception. That is, is there life before the zygote? Naturally, the answer depends upon what life is. The presentation, "The Transition Between Life and Death – Exploring the parameters," (http://home.earthlink.net/~jhorne18/) describes a number of issues in determining whether life exists in an entity. Both spematazoa and ova consist of cells, and these cells are alive. So, the more accurate question is one about the type of life at conception. Any biologist should know that the progression from zygote to a fetus is continuous, and the question arises about the nature of life this complex organism takes on. In particular, the answer focuses upon consciousness. (As to whether there is a "soul" is more of a metaphysical and/or religious question that can be answered only by speculation or faith.) A perusal of the website http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/ should make the reader aware that there is no universal answer about what is consciuousness. One can argue that even the simplest forms of life (whatever that is) are conscious. (There is even artificial life, as any internet search will show.) The discussion often is raised about whether life and consciousness exist outside earth. One has to consider non-hydrocarbon-based life, as well.
As we see, the question of whether life begins at conception is trumped by considering the nature of life and role of human intervention. This however, involves another discussion outside the scope of life begining at conception.
