> Tom, since, in this forum, you repeatedly use the term 'human being'
> in referring to a human zygote AND maintain that bio-science
> consensus supports such use, it would be a more credible claim if you
> provided URLs to CONCISE mutually respectable sources (am holding
> pro/anti abortion rights advocates to same standard here)
I'm not sure what you mean by "mutually respectable sources,"
especially in the context of holding both sides to the same standard.
The only citations I've seen at all so far in this thread have been
from you, and they've been to non-scientific lay references like
Merriam-Webster. Nothing wrong with non-scientific references ... but
if one is trying to establish the actuality of a "scientific
consensus," then they aren't exactly the place to look.
Also, it's more difficult to gauge whether or not a web site reflects
a "scientific consensus." Anyone can put up a web site that says
anything they want it to say (including "this site represents a
scientific consensus"). It's a different thing entirely to get a
publisher to put up the money to print a textbook (which will have to
get past professional review committees to be adopted for curricula)
or to get an article into a real journal (which will be peer-reviewed).
So, take these three as as you like -- the first is from a lay source,
the second and third from non-religious academic sources:
"Zygote 1. The cell resulting from the union of an ovum and a
spermatozoon (including the organism that develops from that cell)"
WordWeb Online
http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/ZYGOTE
"zygote -- The product of gamete fusion. In organisms with a haploid
life cycle, the zygote immediately undergoes meiosis, but in organisms
with a multicellular diploid stage, the zygote is merely the first
stage in the diploid portion of the life cycle."
University of California-Berkeley College of Paleontology, Glossary:
Life History
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/glossary_6.html
[N.B. Humans are organisms with a multicellular diploid stage. The
diploid stage, as the entry states, begins with the original diploid
cell -- the zygote -- and ends with death, unless one wants to expand
the definition of a "human life" to the pre-zygote stage before two
haploid cells -- sperm and ovum -- combine, which I doubt that any
pro-choice advocates or many pro-life advocates are interested in doing]
"What are the stages of human development?
The National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) provided a simple
outline of human development:
1. the developing organism is a zygote during the first week after
fertilization,
2. the organism is an embryo during the 2nd 8th weeks of development
3. the organism is a fetus from the 9th week of development until the
time of birth."
University of California-Los Angeles Institute for Cell Biology and
Medicine FAQ
http://www.iscbm.ucla.edu/faq.htm
Tom Knapp
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