When does life start? No, not just when you turn 18 and move out altho it may seem like a life living in the basement apartment of a nice Russian couple. I am talking about when does biological life start. This time has many implications it can define the concepts of humanity and, life. And it means to be alive? What does it mean to be human? Is a zygote or an embryo alive? Is a zygote or an embryo a human being? I wish I knew. The answer has changed through history based on the beliefs, values and social constructs of the community or individual that drew the conclusion.

The religious answer has changed very little and little difference between religions. One of the core Buddhism values is to refrain from destroying living beings. Buddhist teaching commonly holds that sentience is attained at the moment of fertilization ('conception'), and that, with consciousness, comes the capacity for a being to achieve enlightenment. The Catholic Church holds a very similar stance. Hinduism, as well, teaches that abortion is a great crime and one of the worst sins, it is one of the six kinds of murder described in Hindu culture. Muslim people generally disapprove of abortion, arguing that the right to terminate life rests with God alone.

However, just becasue people think the same things does not make it true. Exodus 21:22-23 states: "When men fight, and one of them pushes a pregnant woman and a miscarriage results, but no other damage (ason) ensues, the one responsible shall be fined according as the woman's husband may exact from him, the payment to be based on reckoning. But if other damage (ason) ensues, the penalty shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." Jewish law forbids the killing of the embryo, but such killing is not deemed murder. Instead, the feticide is a form of damages subject to monetary compensation. Conversely, the killing of the mother, the other damage, would be considered a capital offense or, murder.

When is does a person become a person, currently it's considered at conception, who knows what it will be 2,000 years from now.