Describe three ways of defining the beginning of life.

Choose the one that best reflects

authoritative knowledge in the U.S. and justify your response (be careful to define what you
mean by authoritative knowledge). Finally, describe some of the policy implications of this way
of defining the beginning of life.

The three ways of defining the beginning of life are: conception, viability, and whether the living
organism looks like a human being. Life begins when a spermatozoon, which is a male germ
cell, and an ovum, a female germ cell, fuse together to form a zygote. After sexual intercourse,
spermatozoa travel towards the uterine tracts for fertilization. This is how conception happens
within a female. But there are certain law incidents associated with conception. For examples in
Ahwatukee foothills, a woman argued on avoiding a HOV lane violation because she was
pregnant with a 9-month fetus. I agree with her on this, its not valid to consider a baby a human
only after its born. It should be considered a human, the day it was conceived in the mother. A
case in 2004 says otherwise, a judge executed a deportation order for a woman who believed that
her child was an American citizen. The judge could not determine the nationality of the baby
before its born, so I think its valid to assign deportation based on mother’s nationality. Second
way of defining life is viability. This refers to the mode of reproduction. Technology can be
involved for women and men to become viable. Or naturally women and men could be healthy
enough to reproduce on their own. According to the Roe v. Wade case, it explains that a baby
when delivered early can be placed in an artificial aid similar to the mother’s womb. Lastly, the
third way of defining the beginning of life is for the organism to resemble a person. Through
evolution the way a human looks have changed drastically. But as of now, human have an
upright body and are more civilized in appearance. But its not guaranteed that the newborn
babies will always look like humans. There are possibilities that the babies could be born
prematurely, have deformities, or have birth defects. In my opinion the use of science and
technology is not considered to be authoritative knowledge because it does not occur naturally.
In my opinion, authoritative knowledge refers to the naturally occurring laws that support the
babies’ development. So in that case, conception would be the best option for authoritative
knowledge. For the most part, conception supports the idea that babies regardless of it being
before or after birth should be considered humans with exceptions to few cases. This is natural
and supports pro-life. Many people underestimate the value of birth and pregnancy until the baby
is born, so through conception laws, a life’s value would be highlighted and strongly conveyed.