Over at Salon, Sahotra Sarkar has a piece with the entitled, “When human life begins is a question of politics — not biology.” There are two, not mutually exclusive, ways to look at this headline. One is that such a claim is insane. Imagine if the headline read “Whether or not [insert oppressed people group here] are really people is a question of politics” and imagine what the you reaction would be.
A second way is that Sarkar is not wrong when he says when life begins is not a matter of biology, just not in the way he thinks he is. If science is to be defined as the process in which we learn about the natural world then it cannot explain abstract objects like words and their definitions. But, if we understand the meaning of words, we can use them to inform other abstract ideas like the philosophy of science which informs scientific ethics which informs science which informs politics.
Begin, etymologically speaking, means to originate or to come into existence. Sarkar writes there are five possible situations where life can be said to begin:
The first of these stages is fertilization in the egg duct, when a zygote is formed with the full human genetic material. But almost every cell in everyone's body contains that person's complete DNA sequence. If genetic material alone makes a potential human being, then when we shed skin cells – as we do all the time – we are severing potential human beings.
The first sentence is the answer. This explains the fertilization process, but in an attempt to avoid the obvious conclusion, Sarkar throws out this red herring about skin cells. I hope I do not have to explain to Sarkar that skin cells do not make babies.
Separate from each other, the sperm and the egg do not constitute life, but when they combine is when something new comes into existence or “begins.” Not before, not after.
Quickly, let’s go over the other four possibilities Sakar cites:
The second plausible stage is called gastrulation, which happens about two weeks after fertilization. At that point, the embryo loses the ability to form identical twins – or triplets or more. The embryo therefore becomes a biological individual but not necessarily a human individual.
Of course, it is human, what else would it be? An octopus?
The third possible stage is at 24 to 27 weeks of pregnancy, when the characteristic human-specific brain-wave pattern emerges in the fetus's brain. Disappearance of this pattern is part of the legal standard for human death; by symmetry, perhaps its appearance could be taken to mark the beginning of human life.
Key word: “part.” Also, life is a process, the question is when does that process begin, not what happens at the end or at other certain points on the timeline.
The fourth possible stage, which is the one endorsed in the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in the United States, is viability, when a fetus typically becomes viable outside the uterus with the help of available medical technology. With the technology that we have today, that stage is reached at about 24 weeks.
So life begins at 24 weeks, or 14,515,200 seconds, but not 14,515,199? But, if technology were to improve tomorrow it would?
The final possibility is birth itself.
But, again, not one second before?