1. When does human life begin? Think about this question for a minute and write your answer. Explain your position.

2. Things to think about:  When is something alive?  What makes a human being?  What is the soul? What does that have to do with being alive?  If cells are alive, are the cells a person?  Do all people agree on this?  What role does culture and technology play in your thinking?

3. The question of when a human life begins has been pondered through out history  The answer has changed throughout history….and is still changing. WHY? Because any answer is deeply integrated with beliefs and values, the culture and current technology. So your answer may be very different from someone’s of a different time and culture as well as someone within your own culture. There are LOTS of opinions on this matter.

4. Here are some answers that people through the ages have given  Plato…remember him?  He believed that the human soul entered the body at birth  Today there are people who believe that a human person does not exist until the baby breathes outside the womb

5. More ideas  Life begins when the fetus has blood. This is an ancient idea based on the notion of blood giving “life”.  Human life begins at “quickening”. Another old idea based on the notion that the tissue is human when the mother feels movement.

6. When can a baby survive on its own? A baby is human when it can survive apart from its mother…when it can survive on its own it is a person.

7. The tissue is human when it looks like a baby Around the end of the first trimester

8. Human life begins at at the moment of conception When the sperm penetrates the egg, new life begins. Is it human? What is your answer???

9. In what way does technology help answer this question?  The answer to the question depends on the technology of the society asking it