Analyse the Various Answers to the Question.‘When Does Human Life Start?’

Analyse the various answers to the question.
                                  ‘When does human life start?’                     (30 marks)
There are many different views as to when human life starts, for example conception, viability, the primitive streak, potentiality and birth are all considered to be the starting point of human life.
The question ‘when does human life start?’ is an ongoing debate argued by many. One answer to this question is that conception is the start of human life, as the action of conceiving a child or of one being conceived is considered to be the start of human life by many. For example John Grigg said that ‘to my mind life begins at the moment of conception, conception is that magic moment.’ This suggests that human life starts at the moment of conception, therefore it is wrong to use contraception and abortion as this would be considered taking a life which goes against the ten commandments in which commandment six states that ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ The Roman Catholics also believe that to abort a foetus is murder; they have based this on the teachings from Pope Pius IX, as he declared that a foetus is a human person from the moment of conception. It is considered that conception is the start of human life because conception is the point at which the unique selection of genetic information is present and, if allowed to continue and successful in development will go on to be a unique human being.
Another view on the ongoing question of ‘when does human life start’ is viability, this is an often used term during pregnancy. It is used to describe different situations. This refers to the time where the baby would be born prematurely and having a reasonable chance of survival. Doctors in the UK have said the viability age is roughly 24 weeks. However being born at week 24 does not mean that all babies will survive outside of the womb and that they would not have any complications. The chance of survival increases each day after the 24th...