Anything that grows is alive

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Anything that grows is alive. Is this a true statement? I made this claim and thought it sounded pretty good. Before I print tshirts and bumper stickers, I wonder, is it true?

BTW This was in response to a statement that abortion was NOT murder. My reply was this, meaning that if the early stages of development of anything (and people in particular) are stopped then that thing, person, animal or plant is killed.
 
It is true, but I’m not sure that people are going to understand your point. Cancer cells are alive, and they grow like gangbusters. Cancer surgery is not murder.

Not all killing is murder, IOW, and not all removal of living tissue is even considered “killing,” because the organism survives.

No one stays alive without so much as a plant dying for the cause, so killing living things is inevitable to those of us who eat. It is the intentional taking of an *innocent human life *that is murder. If someone were to believe the lie that there is no innocent human person being intentionally killed when there was an abortion, then cooperating with an abortion would be seen as killing or as tissue removal (like cutting your toenails or having your tonsils out), but the someone who truly believed no person dies in an abortion wouldn’t be culpable for a murder. (It is perhaps debatable how many people in the position to cooperate with an abortion hear this lie and actually don’t know any better than to believe it, but that is a different discussion altogether.)
 
I agree with EasterJoy. Also, hair grows, fingernails grow but they don’t have life on their own.
 
Yes, thanks. My statement does not suggest killing anything other than a human is murder. Killing poison ivy is good. Killing human zygotes is bad.
 
These Choicers think that it is not a life. but if it grows it is a life. therefore a human life.
 
The original statement is true, but too general to be much use.

ICXC NIKA
 
Qwikness said:
Anything that grows is alive. Is this a true statement? I made this claim and thought it sounded pretty good. Before I print tshirts and bumper stickers, I wonder, is it true?

BTW This was in response to a statement that abortion was NOT murder. My reply was this, meaning that if the early stages of development of anything (and people in particular) are stopped then that thing, person, animal or plant is killed.
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Not be contrarian, but crystals can grow and they aren’t alive. (anything that can *reproduce *is alive but that doesn’t sound so good as a bumper sticker slogan)
 
Qwikness said:
Anything that grows is alive. Is this a true statement? I made this claim and thought it sounded pretty good. Before I print tshirts and bumper stickers, I wonder, is it true?

BTW This was in response to a statement that abortion was NOT murder. My reply was this, meaning that if the early stages of development of anything (and people in particular) are stopped then that thing, person, animal or plant is killed.
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It’s true only in the narrowest sense of the word. Most people would think of stalactites as “growing,” or mountains “growing,” but neither of those are alive.

Is this claim for a prolife tshirt, or what context are you thinking of it for? 🙂
 
OK I guess other stuff grows. Oh well it must have not been so clever, particularly since no one supported the idea. I guess that’s why I asked. So long novel bumper sticker political idea.
 
The one I saw recently that I liked was to the effect that if it’s not a baby, then you don’t need an abortion.

But, really, it’s not something you can easily reduce to a bumper sticker slogan. The best way I have seen to get through to people about abortion is focusing on human personhood. The argument for personhood of those babies is rather clear and undeniable. But there really is no way I can think of to reduce that argument to a slogan.

You could go with something controversial, such as “stop throwing your babies in the garbage”. But I am not sure how effective that would be.
 
Qwikness said:
Anything that grows is alive. Is this a true statement? I made this claim and thought it sounded pretty good. Before I print tshirts and bumper stickers, I wonder, is it true?

BTW This was in response to a statement that abortion was NOT murder. My reply was this, meaning that if the early stages of development of anything (and people in particular) are stopped then that thing, person, animal or plant is killed.
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Interesting question which hinges on the definition of growth. Viruses are not alive, but replicate, but they have no cells, so their growth is not cellular growth.
 
Can’t help thinking of that Onion article (can’t find it):
“Clever bumper sticker ends abortion debate”
In which one of the most emotive issues of our time was settled by a witty quote which someone put on a bumper sticker and became a trending tweet, finally convincing everyone and putting the issue to rest.
:rolleyes:
 
Basically that is true, although it doesn’t cover bacteria.

Scientifically speaking only two things are not considered alive. Viruses and sperm. Which in a creepy way are the same thing. They do not have a nucleus and run off of mitochondrial energy. They cannot survive on their own. They also invade other cells and imprint their own DNA/RNA into the nucleus of that cell.

This was something heavily covered in college biology. Which I found interesting, especially because the teacher was pro-choice. 🤷
 
Yes, it is a true statement. Crystals do not grow, they are added to.
 
Cariethra said:
Basically that is true, although it doesn’t cover bacteria.

Scientifically speaking only two things are not considered alive. Viruses and sperm. Which in a creepy way are the same thing. They do not have a nucleus and run off of mitochondrial energy. They cannot survive on their own. They also invade other cells and imprint their own DNA/RNA into the nucleus of that cell.

This was something heavily covered in college biology. Which I found interesting, especially because the teacher was pro-choice. 🤷
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Archaea and Bacteria do have cells which makes their growth cellular growth, and they are organisms, whereas sperm, pollen, and spores are not organisms.
 
If bacteria didn’t grow in mass they would be infinitely small by now. Their growth is through gaining mass instead of adding cells through cell division because they are a single celled organism.
 
Vico said:
Interesting question which hinges on the definition of growth. Viruses are not alive, but replicate, but they have no cells, so their growth is not cellular growth.
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white_sheep said:
If bacteria didn’t grow in mass they would be infinitely small by now. Their growth is through gaining mass instead of adding cells through cell division because they are a single celled organism.
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And volcanos and crystals grow, as in the gain volume\mass, but are clearly not alive.
 
Brendan said:
And volcanos and crystals grow, as in the gain volume\mass, but are clearly not alive.
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This merely denotes a limitation of the term “grow” in the English language. If you understand the context, which is unavoidable, then you know that what is meant by the statement is not that anything which gets bigger is alive.

Of course you know that, I am just explaining why those examples are not applicable. Crystals do appear to grow, but they do not grow anymore than ice grows when it freezes or dirt grows when I shovel more into a bucket.
 
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