> Tom, ok if you're going to keep applying the term 'human being' to
> human zygotes and claiming that such use is sustained by
> scientific/biologic consensus, I'm challenging you to provide readily
> verifiable supporting source citations.
What do you mean by "readily verifiable?" I've already offered
textbook citations which you can "readily verify" by visiting the
nearest university library. If, on the other hand, by "readily
verifiable" you refer to something you can just point and click, then
I need to know your minimum standard. I could throw stuff at you from
L4L or other partisan sites all day long, but I doubt that's what
you're looking for.
Wikipedia is a reference that tends to more neutral due to group
consensus editing, but the scholarly credentials of the editors can't
always be vouched for. Here are a couple of bits from the Wikipedia
entry on "human" (which is where going to the entry on "human being"
will redirect to) at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/human:
"A human being is a multicellular eukaryote consisting of an estimated
100,000 billion cells. However a human being is initially just one
cell, a zygote, but when the cell divides, it forms an embryo."
...
"The human life cycle is similar to that of other placental mammals.
New humans develop viviparously from conception. An egg is usually
fertilized inside the female by sperm from the male through sexual
intercourse, though the recent technology of in vitro fertilization is
also occasionally used. The fertilized egg, called a zygote, divides*
inside the female's uterus to become an embryo, which over a period of
thirty-eight weeks becomes a human fetus. At birth, the fully-grown
fetus is expelled from the female's body and breathes independently as
an infant for the first time. At this point, most modern cultures
recognize the baby as a person entitled to the full protection of the
law, though some jurisdictions extend personhood to human fetuses
while they remain in the uterus."
[* The "division" referred to is the process of mitosis and
cytokinesis, through which the zygote grows -- it does not divide into
separate organisms, but rather augments itself with the addition of
new cells]
> Though you have made clear that you don't automatically equate your
> use of the term to also mean 'person' there is a substantial
> consensus which does make such equation.
There may be various legal or philosophical consensuses (consensusi?)
to that effect, but science isn't concerned with "personhood" at all.
It is concerned with physical fact.
Tom Knapp
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