# When does life begin?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-life-begin/473806>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [November 21, 2008, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-life-begin/473806 "2008-11-21T10:42:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![renaissance622](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5e9695/32.png) [@renaissance622](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/renaissance622)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-life-begin/473806/1 "2008-11-21T10:42:40Z")

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Sometimes helping someone out is the only viable alternative to letting them in in the first place. I have a nostalgic attachment for the days when life began in the male mind after the second drink. Much later came Roe vs Wade which I was told were alternative methods for leaving New Orleans a few years ago.

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**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-life-begin/473806/2 "2008-11-21T12:51:24Z")

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> [@renaissance622](#):
>
> Sometimes helping someone out is the only viable alternative to letting them in in the first place. I have a nostalgic attachment for the days when life began in the male mind after the second drink. Much later came Roe vs Wade which I was told were alternative methods for leaving New Orleans a few years ago.

“Life” began eons ago. Life is a passed on thing. Even if one believes the Adam and Eve story it was passed on from then. Doesn’t the Old Testement say God breathed into a clay figure and that was the beginning of human life? Biology through evolution shows it going back eons. Personhood is another story. Would one call a fertile egg a chicken or a pollenated apple blossom an apple?

Monavis

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-life-begin/473806/3 "2008-11-21T12:58:31Z")

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I’m assuming this is about the new column (from today): [When does human life begin (revisited)? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2825/round-2-when-does-human-life-begin)

However, please note, there’s also a thread about the prior column from 24-Oct-2008: [Life Begins When You Realize that Women have Rights - Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=489718) … in fact, this is the thread from which Cecil took the OP as the starting question.

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**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-life-begin/473806/4 "2008-11-21T15:51:06Z")

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I wish Cecil had said more about what I see as the main problem with that poster’s objections – that they’re totally irrelevant. The question the original column set out to answer was “When does life begin?” A woman’s right to control her own body is certainly relevant to the abortion debate, but _not_ to the question of when life begins. To claim otherwise is as absurd as arguing that the state having a legal right to execute convicted murderers means that those murderers aren’t alive to begin with. “My rights trump your life” is not the same argument as “you aren’t alive”.