Which days do we (and don't we) celebrate?

  • Thread starter Thread starter LionHeart
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
LionHeart said:
The ovum and the sperm are both alive before fusion.
Click to expand...
Right, but how many chromosomes does a sperm have?

How many chromosomes does an ovum have?

How many chromosomes does a human being have? (Presuming that there isn’t a chromosomal disorder in play.)

No one’s arguing that the sperm or the egg are independent human beings, just like no one’s arguing that my kidney cells or my lung cells are independent human beings, even if a mad scientist decides to grow an entire kidney or an entire lung from one of my cells.

So although you need a live sperm and a live egg for conception, the reason why people say “life begins at conception” is because you suddenly have a new living entity that didn’t exist previously— that was created from cells from two preexisting individuals.
 
LionHeart said:
The expression “a unique and distinct human DNA” is meaningless. There is no scientific method to describe: “this DNA is human, and that DNA is not human” because the DNA is not a precise set of molecules. What about mutations? At what point could we decide: “the mutation is so large, that this new being is a super-human (or a sub-human)?”

stpurl:
Click to expand...
You tell me, since those in your court, having decided that people with Down’s Syndrome are subhuman, have successfully killed off all children with Down’s Syndrome in Iceland.

Funny how it’s your side, not ours, that engages in eugenics. Perhaps the slippery slope slides in the opposite direction than you seem to think.
 
midori said:
How many chromosomes does a human being have? (Presuming that there isn’t a chromosomal disorder in play.)
Click to expand...
That is the point! There is no explicit human DNA.
midori said:
No one’s arguing that the sperm or the egg are independent human beings, just like no one’s arguing that my kidney cells or my lung cells are independent human beings, even if a mad scientist decides to grow an entire kidney or an entire lung from one of my cells.
Click to expand...
Of course it is possible to clone a new human… or even take an ovum, and use either a chemical or mechanical method to induce the splitting and finally get a new human. By the way, why would that scientist be called “mad”? If we could grow replacement parts that would be a wonderful achievement.
 
LionHeart said:
There is no scientific method to describe: “this DNA is human, and that DNA is not human” because the DNA is not a precise set of molecules. What about mutations?
Click to expand...
There was a news article recently about a professor who decided to analyze sushi. She had her class run DNA analysis on a variety of samples.

Tilapia (a white fish) was being passed off as red tuna (a red fish) and, in another instance, red snapper (another red fish). So that was a very clear case of someone somewhere deliberately trying to pass off a cheap, common fish as a more expensive species.

Yellowfin was being passed off as albacore. Rainbow trout was being mislabeled as Atlantic salmon. Coho salmon was being passed for rainbow trout. Atlantic cod was being passed for Pacific cod. One salmon sample was so overwhelmingly tainted with body louse that they couldn’t even figure out what kind of fish it belonged to.

If people are able to tell the difference between yellowfin tuna vs albacore tuna, or between Atlantic cod vs Pacific cod, based on DNA analysis---- where are you getting the idea that we can’t tell the difference between human DNA and non-human DNA?
 
midori said:
If people are able to tell the difference between yellowfin tuna vs albacore tuna, or between Atlantic cod vs Pacific cod, based on DNA analysis---- where are you getting the idea that we can’t tell the difference between human DNA and non-human DNA?
Click to expand...
What about mutations?
 
LionHeart said:
What about mutations?
Click to expand...
Like, what?

Hypertrichosis?

SCID?

Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome?

Sickle cell anemia?

Cystic fibrosis?

Cancer?

Myopia?

There are three types of mutations: Deletions, Insertions, and Base Substitutions.

Our DNA is different, because we’re different. I’m not as tall as a Zulu, and I’m not blue-eyed like a Swede. But our earlobe attachment, our ability to roll our tongues, our freckles, the curliness of our hair, whether we’re red/green colorblind, whether we’re left or right-handed… those are all physical characteristics of our DNA. And we’re all human, even if we don’t perceive color identically, or even if we’re not all right-handed, or even if we’re not all six feet tall.

But you’re basically making the argument that someone with cancer or someone who’s severely nearsighted doesn’t have recognizable human DNA because they have a mutation.

Mutations are how we get so much variety in the human species in the first place… and not all mutations will kill you. Some of them will inconvenience you, sure— I’m looking at you, myopia! --but we don’t even notice most of the mutations we have going on in our own bodies.
 
LionHeart said:
I do not call the fetus a parasite, I call it having a parasitic relationship with the woman.
Click to expand...
It is NOT a parasitic relationship. It’s a symbiotic relationship.

If it was a parasitic relationship, the mother would be truely ill and unhealthy during pregnancy.

That’s not what typically happens. And the majority of the time, when a woman has complications with the pregnancy, it’s not the presence of the child that is causing the complications, but a defect in the woman’s body.

If it was a parasitic relationship, the vast majority of women would have complications and “allergic reactions” to her baby.

So no, it’s not a parasitic relationship at all. It’s a symbiotic relationship. The child benefit from the mother and in many instances the mother benefits from the child.

Here is short article talking about just a few health benefits a pregnant mother receives


So again… SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP - yes, but NOT parasitic.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top