Draft talk:Life begins at conception

Other article

We have an article about When does life begin, where this argument is listed under the header of Genetics. Should this be moved there? Allgoodusernamesweretaken (talk) 16:39, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

Intent

This has been in a file on my computer for a few years, which I never got around to finishing. I grew up pro-life, and this is intended to be a short and sweet summary of arguments against this particular concept, of the type that would be convincing to my former self, that will show up in Google searches for this particular phrase. Obviously I'm posting it on a wiki, so other people are free to edit it, but I think it would be more effective if other editors try to stick that theme instead of turning it into a meandering article about all kinds of different stuff like the article on When does life begin?

Basic structure I'm imagining:

• Literal interpretation is obviously wrong
• Personhood interpretation is wrong, too, because:
  • Many conceptions fail to implant yet are not given the same status as people
  • Twins form after conception yet are considered different people
    • Conjoined twins never even separate, yet are considered separate people
      • Parasitic/vestigial twins are not considered to be people with rights, and can be removed, because they have no brain
  • Chimeras form from multiple conceptions yet are a single person
    • Removing a chimeric birthmark would not be considered murder
    • Microchimerism consists of cells that could each develop into a baby, too, yet are not considered people
• History and origin of the phrase

Hmmph (talk) 19:16, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

There's also drawing the logic to it's final conclusion: if abortion is wrong then intentionally killing a fetus is wrong, if killing a fetus is wrong then intentionally killing an embryo is wrong, if killing an embryo is wrong then intentionally killing a sperm cell is wrong (Sperm is demonstrably alive). Conclusion: male masturbation should be punished with prison time (Reductio ad absurdum). I had this argument with a pro-lifer in the Saloon once, he had trouble wrapping his head around the idea that sperm was alive. Bongolian (talk) 19:37, 25 September 2022 (UTC)